Microscopic theory of equilibrium properties of F/S/F trilayers with weak ferromagnets

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explain the non monotonic temperature dependence of the self-consistent superconducting gap of ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet (F/S/F) trilayers with weak ferromagnets in the parallel alignment (equivalent to F/S bilayers). We show that this is due to Andreev bound states that compete with the formation of a minigap. Using a recursive algorithm we discuss in detail the roles of various parameters (thicknesses of the superconductor and ferromagnets, relative spin orientation of the ferromagnets, exchange field, temperature, disorder, interface transparencies).

13 pages, 11 figures, modifications in the presentation

References in corpus (3)

• Crossed Andreev reflection at ferromagnetic domain walls
• Andreev conductance of a domain wall
• What is the value of the superconducting gap of a F/S/F trilayer ?

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Sign of the crossed conductances at a FSF double interface
• Self-consistent microscopic calculations for non-local transport through nanoscale superconductors
• Charge transfer statistics of transport through Majorana bound states
• Kondo effect and spin-active scattering in ferromagnet-superconductor junctions
• P-wave Cooper pair splitting