Magnetoanisotropic Andreev reflection in ferromagnet/superconductor junctions (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

Andreev reflection spectroscopy of ferromagnet/superconductor (F/S) junctions is a sensitive probe of the junction interface as well as the spin polarization. We theoretically investigate spin-polarized transport in F/S junctions in the presence of Rashba and Dresselhaus interfacial spin-orbit fields and show that Andreev reflection can be controlled by changing the magnetization orientation. This suggests a similar control of the superconducting proximity effect and Majorana states. We predict a giant in- and out-of-plane magnetoanisotropy of the junction conductance. If the ferromagnet is highly spin polarized - in the half-metal limit - the magnetoanisotropic Andreev reflection depends universally on the spin-orbit fields only. Our results show that Andreev reflection spectroscopy can be used for sensitive probing of interfacial spin-orbit fields in F/S junction. This work has been supported by DFG SFB 689, the International Doctorate Program Topological Insulators of the Elite Network of Bavaria, DOE-BES Grant DE-SC0004890, and ONR N000141310754. P. H\"{o}gl, A. Matos-Abiague, Igor \v{Z}uti\'c, J. Fabian, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 116601 (2015)