Superconductor-ferromagnet Hybrid Structures Research Articles

Nucleation of superconductivity in clean superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We study the influence of the inverse proximity effect on the nucleation of superconductivity in planar hybrid structures consisting of a thin superconducting film proximity coupled to a material with a strong exchange or Zeeman field and the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Based on numerical simulations and analytical estimates within the framework of the Gor'kov equations, we find the superconducting transition temperature of the system and determine the spatial structure of the gap function. It is shown that the spin-orbit interaction partially compensates the pair-breaking effect of the exchange or Zeeman field and stabilizes modulated superconducting states, which can be traced to the Lifshitz invariant in the Ginzburg-Landau free-energy density. The suggested approach provides a microscopic justification of this invariant for a large class of superconducting hybrid systems and clarifies the validity range of the corresponding phenomenological models with terms linear in the spatial gradients of the superconducting order parameter.

Phase-dependent spin polarization of Cooper pairs in magnetic Josephson junctions

Superconductor-Ferromagnet hybrid structures (SF) have attracted much interest in the last decades, due to a variety of interesting phenomena predicted and observed in these structures. One of them is the so-called inverse proximity effect. It is described by a spin polarization of Cooper pairs, which occurs not only in the ferromagnet (F), but also in the superconductor (S) yielding a finite magnetic moment $M_{\text{S}}$ inside the superconductor. This effect has been predicted and experimentally studied. However, interpretation of the experimental data is mostly ambiguous. Here, we study theoretically the impact of the spin polarized Cooper pairs on the Josephson effect in an SFS junction. We show that the induced magnetic moment $M_{\text{S}}$ does depend on the phase difference $\varphi$ and therefore, will oscillate in time with the Josephson frequency $2eV/\hbar$ if the current exceeds a critical value. Most importantly, the spin polarization in the superconductor causes a significant change in the Fraunhofer pattern, which can be easily accessed experimentally.

Nonlocal thermoelectric effects in high-field superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures

We report on the experimental observation of nonlocal spin-dependent thermoelectric effects in superconductor-ferromagnet multiterminal structures. Our samples consist of a thin superconducting aluminum wire with several ferromagnetic tunnel junctions attached to it. When a thermal excitation is applied to one of the junctions in the presence of a Zeeman splitting of the density of states of the superconductor, a thermoelectric current is observed in remote junctions at distances exceeding $10~\mathrm{\mu m}$. The results can be explained by recent theories of coupled spin and heat transport in high-field superconductors.

Andreev bound states at spin-active interfaces.

Andreev bound states are ubiquitous in superconducting hybrid structures. They are formed near impurities, in Josephson junctions, in vortex cores and at interfaces. At spin-active superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces, Andreev bound states are formed due to spin-dependent scattering phases. Spin-dependent phase shifts are an important ingredient for the generation of triplet Cooper pairs in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures. Spectroscopy of Andreev bound states is a powerful probe of superconducting order parameter symmetry, as well as spin-dependent interface scattering and the triplet proximity effect.This article is part of the theme issue 'Andreev bound states'.

Spin-polarized supercurrents for spintronics: a review of current progress

During the past 15 years a new field has emerged, which combines superconductivity and spintronics, with the goal to pave a way for new types of devices for applications combining the virtues of both by offering the possibility of long-range spin-polarized supercurrents. Such supercurrents constitute a fruitful basis for the study of fundamental physics as they combine macroscopic quantum coherence with microscopic exchange interactions, spin selectivity, and spin transport. This report follows recent developments in the controlled creation of long-range equal-spin triplet supercurrents in ferromagnets and its contribution to spintronics. The mutual proximity-induced modification of order in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures introduces in a natural way such evasive phenomena as triplet superconductivity, odd-frequency pairing, Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov pairing, long-range equal-spin supercurrents, -Josephson junctions, as well as long-range magnetic proximity effects. All these effects were rather exotic before 2000, when improvements in nanofabrication and materials control allowed for a new quality of hybrid structures. Guided by pioneering theoretical studies, experimental progress evolved rapidly, and since 2010 triplet supercurrents are routinely produced and observed. We have entered a new stage of studying new phases of matter previously out of our reach, and of merging the hitherto disparate fields of superconductivity and spintronics to a new research direction: super-spintronics.

Spin-orbit coupling as a source of long-range triplet proximity effect in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures

We investigate the proximity effect in diffusive superconducting hybrid structures with a spin-orbit (SO) coupling. Our study is focused on the singlet-triplet conversion and the generation of long-range superconducting correlations in ferromagnetic elements. We derive the quasiclassical equations for the Green's functions including the SO coupling terms in form of a background SU(2) field. With the help of these equations, we first present a complete analogy between the spin diffusion process in normal metals and the generation of the triplet components of the condensate in a diffusive superconducting structure in the presence of SO coupling. From this analogy it turns out naturally that the SO coupling is an additional source of the long-range triplet component (LRTC) besides the magnetic inhomogeneities studied in the past. We demonstrate an explicit connection between an inhomogeneous exchange field and SO coupling mechanisms for the generation of the LRTC and establish the conditions for the appearance of the LRTC in different geometries. We also consider a S/F bilayer in contact with normal metal with SO coupling and show that the latter can be used as a source for the LRTC. Our work gives a global description of the singlet-triplet conversion in hybrids structures in terms of generic spin-fields and our results are particularly important for the understanding of the physics underlying spintronics devices with superconductor elements.

Localized superconductivity in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures

The results of theoretical and experimental investigations of the peculiarities of the nucleation of superconductivity in the presence of a nonuniform magnetic field induced by ferromagnetic films or dots with out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy are reviewed. It is shown that the phase transition line of superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids in the H-T plane (H is an external magnetic field and T is temperature) is determined significantly by the spatial distribution of nonuniform magnetic field. It allows to control the thermodynamic and transport properties of superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids by tuning the magnetic state of the ferromagnet.

Effect of an inhomogeneous exchange field on the proximity effect in disordered superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures

We investigate the effect of an inhomogeneous exchange field on the proximity effect in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures within the quasi-classical theory of superconductivity. As an example we study the proximity effect in a superconductor-ferromagnet bilayer with an in-plane spiral magnetic order in the ferromagnet. This model simulates a multiple magnetic domain structure where the domain walls of the N\'{e}el type are of equal size as the domains. Triplet correlations are induced in the bilayer by the superconducting proximity effect, which are sensitive to the local quantization axis of the exchange field in the ferromagnet. The coexistence of singlet and triplet pair correlations in the bilayer results into a sensitivity of the superconducting transition temperature on the spatial variation of the exchange field in the ferromagnetic layer. We show that the inhomogeneity tends to suppress the oscillating behavior of the pair amplitudes in the ferromagnet. As a result, the superconducting critical temperature is found to be strongly dependent on the spiral wavevector. We study the spin-dependent local density of states and the effect of an induction of a spin magnetization in the superconductor.