Spin-polarized proximity effect in superconducting junctions

Abstract

We study spin dependent phenomena in superconducting junctions in both ballistic and diffusive regimes. For ballistic junctions we study both ferromagnet/ s- and d-wave superconductor junctions and two-dimensional electron gas/ s-wave superconductor junctions with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. It is shown that the exchange field always suppresses the conductance while the Rashba spin-orbit coupling can enhance it. In the latter part of the article we study the diffusive ferromagnet/insulator/ s- and d-wave superconductor (DF/I/S) junctions, where the proximity effect can be enhanced by the exchange field in contrast to common belief. This resonant proximity effect in these junctions is studied for various situations: conductance of the junction and density of states of the DF are calculated by changing the heights of the insulating barriers at the interfaces, the magnitudes of the resistance in DF, the exchange field in DF, the transparencies of the insulating barriers and the angle between the normal to the interface and the crystal axis of d-wave superconductors α. It is shown that the resonant proximity effect originating from the exchange field in DF strongly influences the tunneling conductance and density of states. We clarify the followings: for s-wave junctions, a sharp zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) appears due to the resonant proximity effect. The magnitude of this ZBCP can exceed its value in normal states in contrast to that observed in diffusive normal metal/superconductor junctions. We find similar structures to the conductance in the density of states. For d-wave junctions at α = 0 , we also find a result similar to that in s-wave junctions. The magnitude of the resonant ZBCP at α = 0 can exceed that at α / π = 0.25 due to the formation of the mid gap Andreev resonant states. To cite this article: T. Yokoyama, Y. Tanaka, C. R. Physique 7 (2006).