We study theoretically the effects of interfacial Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in superconductor/ferromagnet/superconductor (S/F/S) Josephson junctions—with allowing for tunneling barriers between the ferromagnetic and superconducting layers—by solving the Bogoljubov–de Gennes equation for realistic heterostructures and applying the Furusaki-Tsukada technique to calculate the electric current at a finite temperature. The presence of spin-orbit couplings leads to out-of-plane and in-plane magnetoanisotropies of the Josephson current, which are giant in comparison to current magnetoanisotropies in similar normal-state ferromagnet/normal metal (F/N) junctions. Especially huge anisotropies appear in the vicinity of $0-\pi$ transitions, caused by the exchange-split bands in the ferromagnetic metal layer. We also show that the direction of the Josephson critical current can be controlled (inducing $0-\pi$ transitions) by the strength of the spin-orbit coupling and, more crucial, by the orientation of the magnetization. Such a control can bring new functionalities into Josephson junction devices.

• Received 3 August 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.024514