Manipulation with Andreev states in spin active mesoscopic Josephson junctions

Journal article, 2008

We investigate manipulation with Andreev bound states in Josephson quantum point contacts with magnetic scattering. The Rabi oscillations in the two-level Andreev subsystems are excited by resonant driving the direction of magnetic moment of the scatterer and by modulating the superconducting phase difference across the contact. The Andreev level dynamics is manifested by the temporal oscillation of the Josephson current, which is accompanied, in the case of magnetic manipulation, also by the oscillation of the Andreev states spin polarization. The interlevel transitions obey a selection rule that forbids manipulations in a certain region of external parameters and results from specific properties of Andreev bound states in magnetic contacts: 4pi periodicity with respect to the superconducting phase and strong spontaneous spin polarization.