Magnetic interference patterns and vortices in diffusive SNS junctions

We study theoretically the electronic and transport properties of a diffusive superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We show that the field dependence of the critical current crosses over from the well-known Fraunhofer pattern in wide junctions to a monotonic decay when the width of the normal wire is smaller than the magnetic length xi(H)=root Phi(0)/H, where H is the magnetic field and Phi(0) the flux quantum. We demonstrate that this behavior is a direct consequence of the magnetic vortex structure appearing in the normal region and predict how this structure is manifested in the local density of states.