Spin injection from a normal metal into a mesoscopic superconductor

Abstract

We report on nonlocal transport in superconductor hybrid structures, with ferromagnetic as well as normal-metal tunnel junctions attached to the superconductor. In the presence of a strong Zeeman splitting of the density of states, both charge and spin imbalance is injected into the superconductor. While previous experiments demonstrated spin injection from ferromagnetic electrodes, we show that spin imbalance is also created for normal-metal injector contacts. Using the combination of ferromagnetic and normal-metal detectors allows us to directly discriminate between charge and spin injection, and demonstrate a complete separation of charge and spin imbalance. The relaxation length of the spin imbalance is of the order of several $\mu$m and is found to increase with a magnetic field, but is independent of temperature. We further discuss possible relaxation mechanisms for the explanation of the spin relaxation length.

7 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX

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• Long-range spin and charge accumulation in mesoscopic superconductors with Zeeman splitting
• Long-Range Spin-Triplet Correlations and Edge Spin Currents in Diffusive Spin-Orbit Coupled SNS Hybrids with a Single Spin-Active Interface
• Generation of pure superconducting spin current in magnetic heterostructures via non-locally induced magnetism due to Landau Fermi-liquid effects
• Spin-transport in superconductors
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• Long-range spin imbalance in mesoscopic superconductors under a Zeeman splitting
• Quasiparticle Spin Resonance and Coherence in Superconducting Aluminium
• Non-equilibrium spin transport in Zeeman-split superconductors
• Injection of nonequilibrium quasiparticles into Zeeman-split superconductors: a way to create long-range spin imbalance
• Supercurrent Induced Charge-Spin Conversion in Spin-Split Superconductors
• Thermospin effects in superconducting heterostructures
• Nonlocal thermoelectric effects in high-field superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures
• Frequency-Domain Measurement of the Spin Imbalance Lifetime in Superconductors
• Superconductivity provides a giant enhancement to the spin battery effect
• Stimulated quasiparticles in spin-split superconductors
• Spin currents driven by the Higgs mode in magnetic superconductors
• Out-of-Equilibrium Spin Transport in Mesoscopic Superconductors
• Controllable supercurrent in mesoscopic superconductor-normal metal-ferromagnet crosslike Josephson structures
• Charge and spin transport in mesoscopic superconductors
• Spin imbalance in hybrid superconducting structures with spin-active interfaces
• Spin current injection via equal-spin Cooper pairs in ferromagnet/superconductor heterostructures
• Phase-controlled spin and charge currents in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids
• Superconductor spintronics: Modeling spin and charge accumulation in out-of-equilibrium NS junctions subjected to Zeeman magnetic fields
• Electron-electron interaction effects on transport through mesoscopic superconducting hybrid junctions
• Spin-dependent coupling of supercurrent and nonequilibrium quasiparticles in high-field superconductors
• Spin-polarized quasiparticle control in a double spin-filter tunnel junction
• Spin injection and spin relaxation in odd-frequency superconductors