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arXiv · 1311.3278

Proximity effect in superconductor/conical magnet/ferromagnet heterostructures

Abstract

At the interface between a superconductor and a ferromagnetic metal spin-singlet Cooper pairs can penetrate into the ferromagnetic part of the heterostructure with an oscillating and decaying spin-singlet Cooper pair density. However, if the interface allows for a spin-mixing effect, equal-spin spin-triplet Cooper pairs can be generated that can penetrate much further into the ferromagnetic part of the heterostructure, known as the long-range proximity effect. Here, we present results of spin-mixing based on self-consistent solutions of the microscopic Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations incorporating a tight-binding model. In particular, we include a conical magnet into our model heterostructure to generate the spin-triplet Cooper pairs and analyse the influence of conical and ferromagnetic layer thickness on the unequal-spin and equal-spin spin-triplet pairing correlations. It will be show that, in agreement with experimental observations, a minimum thickness of the conical magnet is necessary to generate a sufficient amount of equal-spin spin-triplet Cooper pairs allowing for the long-range proximity effect.

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Daniel Fritsch, James F. Annett. 2013-11-13. Proximity effect in superconductor/conical magnet/ferromagnet heterostructures. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630%2F16%2F5%2F055005

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