Recent progress in ferromagnet/superconductor hybrid structure and its applications to cryogenic computing

Abstract

We review the physical basis of and recent developments in ferromagnetic Josephson junctions with a focus on the φ state, which is useful for applications to superconducting devices. Among various novel phenomena that emerge from the interaction between the superconductor and ferromagnet, the φ state (junction) works as a phase shifter in superconducting devices, and several proposals and demonstrations of applications to quantum computing elements (qubits), classical superconducting logic circuits, and cryogenic memory have been presented. As a new research trend in superconducting spintronics, we also introduce recent interesting works on the long-range Josephson effect caused by spin-triplet Cooper pairs.