Manipulating superconductivity through the domain structure of a ferromagnet: experimental aspects and theoretical implications

Abstract

In the present work we study experimentally the influence that the domain structure of a fer- romagnet (FM) has on the properties of a superconductor (SC) in bilayers and multilayers of La0.60Ca0.40MnO3/Nb and FePt/Nb proximity hybrids. Specific experimental protocols that were employed in the performed magnetization measurements enabled us to directly uncover a generic property of FM/SC hybrids: in the absence of an external magnetic field, the multidomain struc- ture of the FM promotes the nucleation of superconductivity, while its monodomain state strongly suppresses it. Our experimental findings support recent theoretical studies proposing that when an inhomogeneous exchange field is offered by the FM to the SC the superconducting pairs are not susceptible to pair-breaking.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Effect of an inhomogeneous exchange field on the proximity effect in disordered superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures
• Switching superconductivity in S/F bilayers by multiple-domain structures

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Symmetries of Pairing Correlations in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Nanostructures
• Stray-fields-based magnetoresistance mechanism in Ni80Fe20-Nb-Ni80Fe20 trilayers
• Enhancement of Superconductivity by Exchange Bias
• Phase Diagrams of Ferromagnet-Superconductor Multilayers with Misaligned Exchange Fields
• Synergy of exchange bias with superconductivity in ferromagnetic-superconducting layered hybrids: the influence of in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic order on superconductivity
• Magnetic State Modification Induced by Superconducting Response in Ferromagnet/Superconductor Hybrids