Spin polarization and orbital effects in superconductor-ferromagnet structures

Abstract

We study theoretically spontaneous currents and magnetic field induced in a superconductor-ferromagnet (S-F) bilayer due to direct and inverse proximity effects. The induced currents {are Meissner currents that appear even in the absence of an external magnetic field due to the magnetic moment in the ferromagnet }and {to the magnetization } in the superconductor . The latter is induced by the inverse proximity effect over a distance of the order of the superconducting correlation length ${\xi }_S$. On the other hand the magnetic induction $B$, caused by Meissner currents, penetrates the S film over the London length ${\lambda }_S$. Even though ${\lambda }_S$ usually exceeds considerably the correlation length, the amplitude and sign of $B$ at distances much larger than ${\xi }_S$ depends crucially on the strength of the exchange energy in the ferromagnet and on the magnetic moment induced in the in the S layer.

12 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• A spin triplet supercurrent through the half-metallic ferromagnet CrO2
• High quality ferromagnetic 0 and pi Josephson tunnel junctions
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