Theory of Josephson transport through spintronics nano-structures

We study the Josephson transport through ferromagnetic insulators (FIs) by taking into account its band structure explicitly. In the case of the fully polarized FIs (FPFIs), we found the formation of a π-junction and an atomic-scale 0–π transition induced by increasing the FI thickness. More remarkably, in the Josephson junction through spin-filter materials such as Eu chalcogenides, the orbital hybridization between the conduction d and the localized f electron gives rise to the π-junction behavior. Such FI-based π-junctions can be used to implement highly coherent solid-state quantum bits.