Evidence for Suppression of Superconductivity by Spin Imbalance in Co-Al-Co single electron transistors
Spin imbalance is predicted to lead to suppression of superconductivity. We report phenomena manifesting this effect under spin-polarized quasiparticle currents in ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet single electron transistors. The measured superconducting gap as a function of magnetic field reveals a dramatic decrease when the magnetizations of the two leads are in opposite orientations. The effect of suppression increases with increas-ing voltage but decreases at elevated temperatures. The possible explanations for these dependences are given. This method may render it applicable to control superconductivity at low temperatures and low fields.
cond-mat.supr-con↗