Enhanced superconducting proximity effect in clean ferromagnetic domain structures

Abstract

We investigate the superconducting proximity effect in a clean magnetic structure consisting of two ferromagnetic layered domains with antiparallel magnetizations in contact with a superconductor. Within the quasiclassical Green's function approach we find that the penetration of the superconducting correlations into the magnetic domains can be enhanced as compared to the corresponding single domain structure. This enhancement depends on an effective exchange field which is determined by the thicknesses and the exchange fields of the two domains. The pair amplitude function oscillates spatially inside each domain with a period inversely proportional to the local exchange field. While the oscillations have a decreasing amplitude with distance inside the domain which is attached to the superconductor, they are enhancing in the other domain and can reach the corresponding normal metal value for a zero effective exchange field. We also find that the corresponding oscillations in the Fermi level proximity density of states as a function of the second domain's thickness has an growing amplitude over a range which depends on the effective exchange field. Our findings can be explained as the result of cancellation of the exchange fields induced phases gained by an electron inside the two domains with antiparallel magnetizations.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Proximity effects in superconductor-ferromagnet heterostructures
• Odd Triplet Superconductivity and Related Phenomena in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Structures
• Coupling of two superconductors through a ferromagnet : evidence for a pi-junction
• A spin triplet supercurrent through the half-metallic ferromagnet CrO2
• Long-range effects in superconductor-ferromagnet structures
• Quiet SDS Josephson Junctions for Quantum Computing
• Theory of Half Metal-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Odd triplet superconductivity in superconductor/ferromagnet multilayered structures
• Enhancement of the Josephson current by an exchange field in superconductor-ferromagnet structures
• Superconducting phase coherent electron transport in proximity conical ferromagnets
• Superconducting proximity effect in a mesoscopic ferromagnetic wire
• Giant Mutual Proximity Effects in Ferromagnetic/Superconducting Nanostructures
• Manifestation of triplet superconductivity in superconductor-ferromagnet structures
• Proximity effects at ferromagnet-superconductor interfaces
• Oscillations of Andreev states in clean ferromagnetic films
• Supercurrent in Long SFFS Junctions with Antiparallel Domain Configuration
• Proximity effects and characteristic lengths in ferromagnet-superconductor structures
• Superconducting proximity effect in clean ferromagnetic layers
• Local Density of States in Superconductor-Ferromagnetic Hybrid Systems
• Andreev magnetotransport in low-dimensional proximity structures: Spin-dependent conductance enhancement

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Stray-fields-based magnetoresistance mechanism in Ni80Fe20-Nb-Ni80Fe20 trilayers
• Josephson $\phi$-junctions based on structures with complex normal/ferromagnet bilayer
• Synergy of exchange bias with superconductivity in ferromagnetic-superconducting layered hybrids: the influence of in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic order on superconductivity
• Josephson effect in SIFS-tunnel junctions with domain walls in weak link region