The principle of a novel device, which is called a superconducting spin switch or a spin valve for supercurrent, is proposed and theoretically justified. It is based on a four-layer antiferromagnet͞ferromagnet͞superconductor͞ferromagnet spin-valve-like structure. Calculations show that this structure has either zero value or lower superconducting transition temperature for the parallel alignment of magnetizations in the ferromagnetic layers as compared with an antiparallel alignment of magnetizations. Thus, the supercurrent flowing through the superconducting layer can be switched by rotating the magnetization of the top free ferromagnetic layer by a weak external magnetic field. PACS numbers: 74.80.Dm, 74.50. + r, 74.62.Bf, The superconductor͞ferromagnet (SC͞FM) artificial superlattices provide the possibility of controlled studies of interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism. The work by Wong et al. [1], where the indications of nonmonotonic dependence of superconducting transition temperature T c on the thickness of ferromagnetic layers had been observed in SC͞FM multilayers, triggered the investigations of the proximity effect between superconductor and ferromagnet. Buzdin et al. [2][3][4][5] and Radović et al. [6,7] have suggested that superconductivity in SC͞FM multilayers is suppressed because of the large conduction-band exchange splitting in FM layers, which extends into a superconductor via the proximity effect. At the same time, the Cooper pairs leaking from SC into FM acquire a spatially dependent phase, because the partners in a Cooper pair belong to the different spin subbands of a ferromagnet, split by the exchange energy 2I ¿ k B T c0 (T c0 is the superconducting transition temperature of an isolated SC layer). The quantum interference of the incident on the SC͞FM interface pairing wave function with the wave reflected from the opposite side of a FM layer leads to the oscillating and reentrant behaviors of superconducting transition temperature T c in SC͞FM bi-, tri-, and multilayers upon changing the thickness of FM layers, as can be seen from a careful reading of Refs. [3][4][5][6][7]. Shortly afterwards the oscillations of T c were observed experimentally in Nb͞Gd multilayers [8,9], Nb͞CuMn multilayers [10], Nb͞Gd͞Nb trilayers [11], and Fe͞Nb͞Fe trilayers [12,13].The above physical picture proposes the idea that, if the interference of the spin-dependent pairing function is influenced by an external perturbation, the transition temperature will change in a controlled way. At the proper choice of operation temperature the SC͞FM structure can be switched from the superconducting state to the normal one and vice versa, thus valving the supercurrent flow through the superconducting layer.The proposed device structure is a four-layer thin-film structure on a relevant substrate: the first layer is an insulating antiferromagnet (AFM), whose role is to pin the (in-plane) direction of magnetization of the second layer (FM1), made of a metallic ferromagnet of the thickness d F . The third la...

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We report on measurements of structural, superconducting, and magnetic properties of trilayer and bilayer systems combined of superconducting Pb and ferromagnetic Fe. The Pb/Fe layers can be grown on Al 2 O 3 with reasonably flat interfaces, there is no alloying of the components at the interface and Fe is found to be ferromagnetic down to the monolayer range. This is a favorable situation for an S/F proximity system, since it corresponds closely to the situation treated in theoretical models. We find an oscillation of the superconducting transition temperature when plotted versus the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer, which we regard as a clear indication of an unconventional, propagating superconducting pair wave function in the Pb/Fe system. We fit our results using recent theoretical model calculations and find evidence for a strongly reduced transparency of the Pb/Fe interface. We regard this as an essential feature of the proximity effect in Pb/Fe and discuss its physical origin.

We study the critical temperature T_c of SFF trilayers (S is a singlet superconductor, F is a ferromagnetic metal), where the long-range triplet superconducting component is generated at noncollinear magnetizations of the F layers. We demonstrate that T_c can be a nonmonotonic function of the angle \alpha between the magnetizations of the two F layers. The minimum is achieved at an intermediate \alpha, lying between the parallel (P, \alpha=0) and antiparallel (AP, \alpha=\pi) cases. This implies a possibility of a "triplet" spin-valve effect: at temperatures above the minimum T_c^{Tr} but below T_c^{P} and T_c^{AP}, the system is superconducting only in the vicinity of the collinear orientations. At certain parameters, we predict a reentrant T_c(\alpha) behavior. At the same time, considering only the P and AP orientations, we find that both the "standard" (T_c^{P} < T_c^{AP}) and "inverse" (T_c^{P} > T_c^{AP}) switching effects are possible depending on parameters of the system.Comment: 5 pages (including 4 EPS figures

We studied the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) like state established due to the proximity effect in superconducting Nb/Cu 41 Ni 59 bilayers. Using a special wedge-type deposition technique, series of 20-35 samples could be fabricated by magnetron sputtering during one run. The layer thickness of only a few nanometers, the composition of the alloy, and the quality of interfaces were controlled by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and Auger spectroscopy. The magnetic properties of the ferromagnetic alloy layer were characterized with superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. These studies yield precise information about the thickness, and demonstrate the homogeneity of the alloy composition and magnetic properties along the sample series. The dependencies of the critical temperature on the Nb and Cu 41 Ni 59 layer thickness, T c (d S ) and T c (d F ), were investigated for constant thickness d F of the magnetic alloy layer and d S of the superconducting layer, respectively. All types of non-monotonic behaviors of T c versus d F predicted by the theory could be realized experimentally: from reentrant superconducting behavior with a broad extinction region to a slight suppression of superconductivity with a shallow minimum. Even a double extinction of superconductivity was observed, giving evidence for the multiple reentrant behavior predicted by theory. All critical temperature curves were fitted with suitable sets of parameters. Then, T c (d F ) diagrams of a hypothetical F/S/F spin-switch core structure were calculated using these parameters. Finally, superconducting spin-switch fabrication issues are discussed in detail in view of the achieved results.

We report on the first observation of a pronounced re-entrant superconductivity phenomenon in superconductor/ferromagnetic layered systems. The results were obtained using a superconductor/ferromagnetic-alloy bilayer of Nb/Cu1−xNix. The superconducting transition temperature Tc drops sharply with increasing thickness dCuNi of the ferromagnetic layer, until complete suppression of superconductivity is observed at dCuNi ≈4 nm. Increasing the Cu1−xNix layer thickness further, superconductivity reappears at dCuNi≈13 nm. Our experiments give evidence for the pairing function oscillations associated with a realization of the quasi-one dimensional Fulde-FerrellLarkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) like state in the ferromagnetic layer.The coexistence of superconductivity (S) and ferromagnetism (F) in a homogeneous material, described by Fulde-Ferrell and Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) [1,2], is restricted to an extremely narrow range of parameters [3]. So far no indisputable experimental evidence for the FFLO state exists.In general, superconductivity and ferromagnetism do not coexist, since superconductivity requires the conduction electrons to form Cooper pairs with antiparallel spins, whereas ferromagnetism forces the electrons to align their spins parallel. This antagonism can be overcome if superconducting and ferromagnetic regions are spatially separated, as for example, in artificially layered superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) nanostructures (see, e.g. [4], for an early review). The two long-range ordered states influence each other via the penetration of electrons through their common interface. Superconductivity in such a proximity system can survive, even if the exchange splitting energy E ex ∼ k B θ Curie in the ferromagnetic layer is orders of magnitude larger than the superconducting order parameter ∆ ∼ k B T c , with T c the superconducting transition temperature. Cooper pairs entering from the superconducting into the ferromagnetic region experience conditions drastically different from those in a non-magnetic metal. This is due to the fact that spin-up and spin-down partners in a Cooper pair occupy different exchange-split spin-subbands of the conduction band in the ferromagnet. Thus, the spin-up and spin-down wave-vectors of electrons in a pair, which have opposite directions, cannot longer be of equal magnitude and the Cooper pair acquires a finite pairing momentum [5]. This results in a pairing function that does not simply decay as in a non-magnetic metal, but in addition oscillates on a characteristic length scale. This length scale is the magnetic coherence length ξ F , which will be specified below.Various unusual phenomena follow from the oscillation of the pairing wave function in ferromagnets (see, e.g. the recent reviews [6,7,8] and references therein). A prominent example is the oscillatory S/F proximity effect. It can be qualitatively described using the analogy with the interference of reflected light in a Fabry-Pérot interferometer at normal incidence. As the conditions change periodically between construc...

The theory of superconductor-ferromagnet (S-F) heterostructures with two ferromagnetic layers predicts the generation of a long-range, odd-in-frequency triplet pairing at non-collinear alignment (NCA) of the magnetizations of the F-layers. This triplet pairing has been detected in a Nb/Cu 41 Ni 59 /nc-Nb/Co/CoO x spin-valve type proximity effect heterostructure, in which a very thin Nb film between the F-layers serves as a normal conducting (nc) spacer. The resistance of the sample as a function of an external magnetic field shows that for not too high fields the system is superconducting at a collinear alignment of the Cu 41 Ni 59 and Co layer magnetic moments, but switches to the normal conducting state at a NCA configuration. This indicates that the superconducting transition temperature T c for NCA is lower than the fixed measuring temperature. The existence of a minimum T c , at the NCA regime below that one for parallel or antiparallel alignments of the F-layer magnetic moments, is consistent with the theoretical prediction of a singlet superconductivity suppression by the long-range triplet pairing generation.An odd-in-frequency triplet pairing generation in singlet superconductor/ferromagnet thin-film heterostructures was predicted theoretically [1][2][3]. At least two ferromagnetic layers (F 1 ,F 2 ) with a non-collinear alignment of their magnetizations, are required to couple the conventional opposite-spin singlet s-wave pairing channel with the unconventional, odd-triplet s-wave pairing channel. The latter one is of extraordinary long range in F layers [1,2,4], because the magnetized conduction band of a ferromagnetic metal serves as an eigenmedia supporting the equal-spin pairing.Intense activities followed to formulate optimal conditions and realize experimental schemes for the generation and detection of this odd-triplet pairing utilizing the Josephson effect [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].

We study the superconducting properties of a series of Fe/V/Fe trilayers with variable thickness of the Fe layer and constant thickness of the V layer. For an optimized combination of thicknesses and structural quality of the thin films we observe a re-entrant behavior of the superconducting state when plotting the superconducting transition temperature T c as a function of the Fe thickness d Fe . With increasing d Fe , T c drops sharply up to d Fe Ӎ8 Å, then the superconductivity disappears, and it restores again at d Fe у12 Å.