This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description of superconducting junctions and, in particular, the Josephson effect (JE) in all of its aspects. This is a topic of never-ending interest in both fundamental and applied physics. Recent examples include, for instance, the use of Josephson junctions for the detection of Majorana fermions and for superconducting qubits. In this volume, world-renowned experts present the unique aspects of the physics of the JE, resulting from the use of new materials, of hybrid architectures and from the possibility of realizing nanoscale junctions. These new experimental capabilities lead to systems where novel coherent phenomena and transport processes emerge. All this is of great relevance and impact, especially when combined with the didactic approach of a book. The reader will benefit from a general and modern view of coherent phenomena in weakly-coupled superconductors on a macroscopic scale.  Topics that have been only recently discussed in specialized papers and in short reviews are described here for the first time and organized in a general framework. An important section of the book is also devoted to applications, with focus on long-term, future applications such as qubits. In addition to a significant number of illustrations, the book includes numerous tables for comparative studies on technical aspects.weiterlesen