Superconducting spin valves controlled by spiral re-orientation in B20-family magnets

Abstract

We propose a superconducting spin-triplet valve, which consists of a superconductor and an itinerant magnetic material, with the magnet showing an intrinsic non-collinear order characterized by a wave vector that may be aligned in a few equivalent preferred directions under control of a weak external magnetic field. Re-orienting the spiral direction allows one to controllably modify long-range spin-triplet superconducting correlations, leading to spin-valve switching behavior. Our results indicate that the spin-valve effect may be noticeable. This bilayer may be used as a magnetic memory element for cryogenic nanoelectronics. It has the following advantages in comparison to superconducting spin valves proposed previously: (i) it contains only one magnetic layer, which may be more easily fabricated and controlled, (ii) its ground states are separated by a potential barrier, which solves the "half-select" problem of the addressed switch of memory elements.

6 pages, 2 figures, Revised version: main text and Fig. 2 slightly modified, more or less as published

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Half-Metallic Superconducting Triplet Spin MultiValves
• Generation of pure superconducting spin current in magnetic heterostructures via non-locally induced magnetism due to Landau Fermi-liquid effects
• Superconducting spin-valve effect in heterostructures with ferromagnetic Heusler alloy layers
• Magnon-Cooparons in magnet-superconductor hybrids
• The inverse proximity effect in strong ferromagnet-superconductor structures
• Weak ferromagnetism linked to the high-temperature spiral phase of YBaCuFeO5
• Reentrant superconductivity in proximity to a topological insulator