Andreev nanoprobe of half-metallic CrO$_{2}$ films using superconducting cuprate tips

C. S. Turel; I. J. Guilaran; P. Xiong; J. Y. T. Wei

doi:10.1063/1.3659411

paper

Andreev nanoprobe of half-metallic CrO $_{2}$ films using superconducting cuprate tips

arXiv:1110.5010 · doi:10.1063/1.3659411

Abstract

Superconducting tips of YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{7 - x}$ were used to perform point-contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy on half-metallic CrO $_{2}$ thin films. At 4.2K, strong suppression of the d-wave Andreev reflection characteristics was observed, consistent with the high spin polarization of CrO $_{2}$ . Our technique was validated by comparison with data taken on non-magnetic Au films, and with data taken by superconducting Pb tips. The point contacts were estimated to be $≲$ 10nm in size, attesting to their ballistic and microscopic nature. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using superconducting cuprate tips as spin-sensitive nanoprobes of ferromagnets.

To appear in Applied Physics Letters; 4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (1)

Andreev - Saint James reflections: a probe of cuprate superconductors

Andreev nanoprobe of half-metallic CrO2​ films using superconducting cuprate tips

Abstract

References in corpus (1)

Cited by in corpus (2)

Andreev nanoprobe of half-metallic CrO $_{2}$ films using superconducting cuprate tips