Phase separation and proximity effects in itinerant ferromagnet/superconductor heterostructures

Abstract

Heterostructures made of itinerant ferromagnets and superconductors are studied. In contrast to most previous models, ferromagnetism is not enforced as an external Zeeman field but induced in a correlated single-band model (CSBM) that displays itinerant ferromagnetism as a mean-field ground state. This allows us to investigate the influence of an adjacent superconducting layer on the properties of the ferromagnet in a self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach. The CSBM displays a variety features not present in the Zeeman exchange model that influence the behavior of order parameters close to the interface, as e.g. phase separation and the competition between magnetism and superconducting orders.