Controlled suppression of superconductivity by the generation of polarized Cooper pairs in spin valve structures

Abstract

Transport measurements are presented on thin-film superconducting spin-valve systems, where the controlled non-collinear arrangement of two ferromagnetic Co layers can be used to influence the superconducting state of Nb. We observe a very clear oscillation of the superconducting transition temperature with the relative orientation of the two ferromagnetic layers. Our measurements allow us to distinguish between the competing influences of domain averaging, stray dipolar fields and the formation of superconducting spin triplets. Domain averaging is shown to lead to a weak enhancement of transition temperature for the anti-parallel configuration of exchange fields, while much larger changes are observed for other configurations, which can be attributed to drainage currents due to spin triplet formation.

5 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Signature of magnetic-dependent gapless odd frequency states at superconductor/ferromagnet interfaces
• Odd-frequency superconducting states with different types of Meissner response: Problem of coexistence
• Proximity Induced Vortices and Long-Range Triplet Supercurrents in Ferromagnetic Josephson Junctions and Spin Valves
• Superconducting spin-valve effect in heterostructures with ferromagnetic Heusler alloy layers
• Spin-triplet supercurrent in Josephson junctions containing a synthetic antiferromagnet with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
• Transport in Ferromagnet/Superconductor spin valves
• Long-range proximity effect in Nb-based heterostructures induced by a magnetically inhomogeneous permalloy layer
• Colossal proximity effect in a superconducting triplet spin valve based on halfmetallic ferromagnetic CrO2
• Magnetic-field-orientation-dependent triplet supercurrents in Josephson junctions with symmetric and asymmetric exchange-spring interfaces