The interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism is a source of rich physics. Spin-triplet supercurrent with long-range propagation through ferromagnetic layers has been well established in theory and experiment and the use of magnetic layers for switching the ground state phase across Josephson junctions between 0 and π has been experimentally demonstrated. Combining the two effects to observe 0-π switching in a Josephson junction containing three noncolinear magnetic layers has also been experimentally demonstrated. Expanding on this idea, with careful control of magnetic layers in a noncoplanar configuration, it has been theoretically proposed that a device can be created which imparts an arbitrary phase difference across the junction. This demonstration of the anomalous Josephson effect, a so-called ‘φ0 junction’, however, has yet to be realized in a system of conventional ferromagnets. In this thesis, a battery of notable stepping stones toward this goal are presented in the form of characterization of candidate patterned and unpatterned thin magnetic materials and transport measurements of candidate Josephson junction device structures.
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