Access

Letter

Nature Physics 4, 32–36 (1 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphys780

Imaging spontaneous currents in superconducting arrays of |[pi]|-junctions

Sergey M. Frolov , Micah J. A. Stoutimore , Trevis A. Crane , Dale J. Van Harlingen , Vladimir A. Oboznov , Valery V. Ryazanov , Adele Ruosi , Carmine Granata & Maurizio Russo

A charge current can flow between two superconductors separated by a thin barrier. This phenomenon is the Josephson effect, which enables a current to tunnel at zero voltage, typically with no phase shift between the superconductors in the lowest-energy state.