Stray field and the superconducting surface spin valve effect in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/YBa2Cu3O7−δ bilayers

Abstract

Electronic transport and magnetization measurements were carried out on La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/YBa2Cu3O7−δ (LCMO/YBCO) bilayers below the superconducting transition temperature in order to study the interaction between magnetism and superconductivity. This study shows that a substantial number of weakly pinned vortices are induced in the YBCO layer by the large out-of-plane stray field in the domain walls. Their motion gives rise to large dissipation peaks at the coercive field. The angular dependent magnetoresistance (MR) data reveal the interaction between the stripe domain structure present in the LCMO layer and the vortices and anti-vortices induced in the YBCO layer by the out-of-plane stray field. In addition, this study shows that a superconducting surface spin valve effect is present in these bilayers as a result of the relative orientation between the magnetization at the LCMO/YBCO interface and the magnetization in the interior of the LCMO layer that can be tuned by the rotation of a small H. This latter finding will facilitate the development of superconductive magnetoresistive memory devices. These low-magnetic-field MR data, furthermore, suggest that triplet superconductivity is induced in the LCMO layer, which is consistent with recent reports on triplet superconductivity in LCMO/YBCO/LCMO trilayers and LCMO/YBCO bilayers.