Long ranged singlet proximity effect in ferromagnetic nanowires

Abstract

Recently a long ranged superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) proximity effect has been reported in Co crystalline nanowires [1, Nature, 6 389 (2010)]. Since the authors of [1] take care to avoid the existence of magnetic domains, the triplet character of the long ranged proximity effect is improbable. Here we demonstrate that in the one-dimensional ballistic regime the standard singlet S/F proximity effect becomes long ranged. We provide an exact solution for the decay of the superconducting correlations near critical temperature ($T_c$) and for arbitrary impurities concentration. In particular we find a specific regime, between the diffusive and ballistic ones, where the decay length is simply the electronic mean-free path. Finally possible experiments which could permit to elucidate the nature of the observed long ranged proximity effect in Co nanowires are discussed.

4 pages

References in corpus (4)

• A spin triplet supercurrent through the half-metallic ferromagnet CrO2
• Critical Current Oscillations in Strong Ferromagnetic Pi-Junctions
• Nonsinusoidal current-phase relation in strongly ferromagnetic and moderately disordered SFS junctions
• Proximity effect in ferromagnet/superconductor hybrids: from diffusive to ballistic motion