Spin-active interfaces and unconventional pairing in half-metal$\mid$superconductor junctions

Abstract

We study the physical properties of a half-metallic ferromagnet$\mid$superconductor (HM$\mid$S) bilayer, allowing for an arbitrary bulk pairing symmetry of the superconductor and spin-dependent processes at the interface. In particular, we study how the possibility of unconventional pairing such as $p$- and d-wave and a spin-active interface influence the \textit{(i)} conductance spectra, \textit{(ii)} proximity effect, and \textit{(iii)} local density of states of such a bilayer. Our calculation is done both analytically and numerically in the ballistic limit, using both a continuum- and lattice-model. It is found that the spin-dependent phase-shifts occuring at the HM$\mid$S interface seriously influence all of the aforementioned phenomena. We explain our results in terms of Andreev reflection in the presence of a spin-active interface, allowing for both spin-filtering and spin-mixing processes. We demonstrate how the surface-bound states induced by the anisotropy of the superconducting order parameter at the HM$\mid$S interface are highly sensitive to these spin-dependent processes. Our results can be directly tested experimentally using STM-measurements and/or point-contact spectroscopy.

13 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Physical Review B

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• General Boundary Conditions for Quasiclassical Theory of Superconductivity in the Diffusive Limit: Application to Strongly Spin-polarized Systems
• Spin Supercurrent, Magnetization Dynamics, and Phi-State in Spin-Textured Josephson Junctions
• Evidence for Half-Metallicity in n-type HgCr2Se4
• Inverse proximity effect at superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces: Evidence for induced triplet pairing in the superconductor
• Triplet proximity effect in superconducting heterostructures with a half-metallic layer
• Andreev reflection at half-metal-superconductor interfaces with non-uniform magnetization
• Topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions in hybrid structures involving cuprate high-T_c superconductors
• Robustness of Spin-Triplet Pairing and Singlet-Triplet Pairing Crossover in Superconductor/Ferromagnet Hybrids
• Spin-orbital coupling in a triplet superconductor-ferromagnet junction
• Tuning between singlet, triplet, and mixed pairing states in an extended Hubbard chain
• Tunneling Conductance and Spin Transport in Clean Ferromagnet-Ferromagnet-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Spin-flip scattering and critical currents in ballistic half-metallic d-wave Josephson junctions
• Spin Transport in Half-Metallic Ferromagnet-Superconductor Junctions
• Charge and spin transport through a ferromagnet/insulator/unconventional superconductor junction
• Proximity effects in spin-triplet superconductor-ferromagnet heterostucture with spin-active interface
• Transport in multi-terminal superconductor/ferromagnet junctions having spin-dependent interfaces
• Impurity-assisted Andreev reflection at a spin-active half-metal-superconductor interface
• Theory of tunneling conductance of anomalous Rashba metal / superconductor junctions
• Signature of Anomalous Andreev bound states in magnetic Josephson junction of noncentrosymmetric superconductor on a topological insulator
• Spin imbalance in hybrid superconducting structures with spin-active interfaces
• P-wave Cooper pair splitting
• Collective magnetic and plasma excitations in Josephson $\psi$ junctions
• The long-range spin-singlet proximity effect for the Josephson system with single-crystal ferromagnet due to its band structure features
• Superconductivity-driven magnetization modulation in YBa2Cu3O7-δ /SrTiO3/La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 heterostructures
• Scattering theory of magnetic/superconducting junctions with spin active interfaces
• First-principles calculations of spin-triplet andreev reflection spectra at half-metallic ferromagnet/superconductor interface
• Particle-hole spectral asymmetry at the edge of multiorbital noncentrosymmetric superconductors
• Tunneling conductance in half-metal/conical magnet/superconductor junctions in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regime: self-consistent calculations