Web application with Java backend

I am new to building web applications. i have been working with core java for a while. i am looking to build a responsive web application using HTML5 widgets.

What i need to know is , is it possible to create a web application using HTML,CSS and Javascript (Jquery, AngularJS) as front end and Java as the backend code without using JSP? Is there a resource somewhere that i can use as reference.

I tried to find the answer for this question on google, but i found that most of the posts are recommending to use PHP as the backend. Is there any downside to using Java as the backend?

I am open to learning any technology if there are any downside to using Java.

Please advice.

Thanks KB