arXiv subjects

Jacob Linder

Publications and source records attributed to Jacob Linder.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Josephson effect through magnetic skyrmion

We discover that the multiple degrees of freedom associated with magnetic skyrmions: size, position, and chirality, can all be used to control the Josephson effect and 0-pi transitions occurring in superconductor/magnetic skyrmion/superconductor junctions. In the presence of two skyrmions, the Josephson effect depends strongly on their relative chirality and leads to the possibility of a chirality-transistor effect for the supercurrent where the critical current is changed by several orders of magnitude simply by reversing the chirality of a magnetic skyrmion. Moreover, we demonstrate that the Fraunhofer pattern can show a local minimum at zero flux as a direct result of the skyrmion magnetic texture. These findings demonstrate the rich physics that emerges when combining topological magnetic objects with superconductors and could lead to new perspectives in superconducting spintronics.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Controlling the switching field in nanomagnets by means of domain-engineered antiferromagnets

Using soft x-ray spectromicroscopy, we investigate the magnetic domain structure in embedded nanomagnets defined in La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ thin films and LaFeO$_3$/La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ bilayers. We find that shape-controlled antiferromagnetic domain states give rise to a significant reduction of the switching field of the rectangular nanomagnets. This is discussed in the framework of competition between an intrinsic spin-flop coupling and shape anisotropy. The data demonstrates that shape effects in antiferromagnets may be used to control the magnetic properties in nanomagnets.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Critical Temperature and Tunneling Spectroscopy of Superconductor-Ferromagnet Hybrids with Intrinsic Rashba-Dresselhaus Spin-Orbit Coupling

We investigate theoretically how the proximity effect in superconductor/ferromagnet hybrid structures with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling manifests in the density of states and critical temperature. To describe a general scenario, we allow for both Rashba and Dresselhaus type spin-orbit coupling. Our results are obtained via the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity, extended to include spin-orbit coupling in the Usadel equation and Kupriyanov--Lukichev boundary conditions. Unlike previous works, we have derived a Riccati parametrization of the Usadel equation with spin-orbit coupling which allows us to address the full proximity regime. First, we consider the density of states in both SF bilayers and SFS trilayers, where the spectroscopic features in the latter case are sensitive to the phase difference between the two superconductors. We find that the presence of spin-orbit coupling leaves clear spectroscopic fingerprints in the density of states due to its role in creating spin-triplet Cooper pairs. Unlike SF and SFS structures without spin-orbit coupling, the density of states in the present case depends strongly on the direction of magnetization. We show that the spin-orbit coupling can stabilize singlet superconductivity even in the presence of a strong exchange field $h \gg Δ$. This leads to the possibility of a magnetically tunable minigap: changing the direction of the exchange field opens and closes the minigap. We also determine how the critical temperature $T_c$ of an SF bilayer is affected by spin-orbit coupling and demonstrate that one can achieve a spin-valve effect with a single ferromagnet. We find that $T_c$ displays highly non-monotonic behavior both as a function of the magnetization direction and the type and direction of the spin-orbit coupling, offering a new way to exert control over the superconductivity of proximity structures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Spin supercurrent and phase-tunable triplet Cooper pairs via magnetic insulators

We demonstrate theoretically that a dissipationless spin current can flow a long distance through a diffusive normal metal by using superconductors interfaced with magnetic insulators. The magnitude of this spin supercurrent is controlled via the magnetization orientation of the magnetic insulators. The spin supercurrent obtained in this way is conserved in the normal metal just like the charge-current and interestingly has a term which is independent of the superconducting phase difference. The quantum state of the system can be switched between 0 and $π$ by reversing the insulators from a parallel to antiparallel configuration with an external field. We show that the spin-current is carried through the normal metal by superconducting triplet (odd-frequency) correlations and that the superconducting phase difference can be used to enhance these, leaving clear spectroscopic fingerprints in the density of states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Giant Triplet Proximity Effect in $π$-biased Josephson Junctions with Spin-Orbit Coupling

In diffusive Josephson junctions the phase-difference $ϕ$ between the superconductors strongly influences the spectroscopic features of the layer separating them. The observation of a uniform minigap and its phase modulation were only recently experimentally reported, demonstrating agreement with theoretical predictions up to now - a vanishing minigap at $ϕ=π$. Remarkably, we find that in the presence of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling a giant proximity effect due to spin-triplet Cooper pairs can develop at $ϕ=π$, in complete contrast to the suppressed proximity effect without spin-orbit coupling. We here report a combined numerical and analytical study of this effect, proving its presence solely based on symmetry arguments, which makes it independent of the specific parameters used in experiments. We show that the spectroscopic signature of the triplets is present throughout the entire ferromagnetic layer. Our finding offers a new way to artificially create, control and isolate spin-triplet superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Improved Domain Wall Dynamics and Magnonic Torques using Topological Insulators

We investigate the magnetization dynamics that arise when a thin-film ferromagnet is deposited on a topological insulator (TI), focusing in particular on domain-wall motion via current and the possibility of a spin-wave torque acting on the magnetization. We show analytically that the coupling between the magnetic domain wall and the TI removes the degeneracy of the wall profile with respect to its chirality and topological charge. Moreover, we find that the threshold for Walker breakdown of domain wall motion is substantially increased and determined by the interaction with the TI, allowing for higher attainable wall velocities than in the conventional case where the hard axis anisotropy determines the Walker threshold. Finally, we show that the allowed modes of spin-wave excitations and the ensuing magnetization dynamics in the presence of a TI coupling enable a magnonic torque acting even on homogeneous magnetization textures. Our results indicate that the TI-ferromagnet interaction has a similar effect on the magnetization dynamics as an intrinsic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in ferromagnets.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Spin Supercurrent, Magnetization Dynamics, and Phi-State in Spin-Textured Josephson Junctions

The prospect of combining the dissipationless nature of superconducting currents with the spin-polarization of magnetic materials is interesting with respect to exploring superconducting analogues of topics in spintronics. In order to accomplish this aim, it is pivotal to understand how spin-supercurrents interact dynamically with magnetization textures. We investigate the appearance of a spin-supercurrent and the resulting magnetization dynamics in a textured magnetic Josephson current by using three experimentally relevant models: i) a S/F/S junction with spin-active interfaces, ii) a S/F1/F2/F3/S Josephson junction with a ferromagnetic trilayer, and iii) a Josephson junction containing a domain wall. In all of these cases, the supercurrent is spin-polarized and exerts a spin-transfer torque on the ferromagnetic interlayers which causes magnetization dynamics. Using a scattering matrix formalism in the clean limit, we compute the Andreev-bound states and free energy of the system which is used to solve the Landau-Lifshiftz-Gilbert equation. We compute both how the inhomogeneous magnetism influences the phase-dependence of the charge supercurrent as well as the magnetization dynamics caused by the spin-supercurrent. Using a realistic experimental parameter set, we find that the supercurrent can induce magnetization switching that is controlled by the superconducting phase difference. Moreover, we demonstrate that the combined effect of chiral spin symmetry breaking and interface scattering causes the system to act as a phase battery that may supply any superconducting phase difference phi in the ground state. Such a phi junction is accompanied by an anomalous supercurrent appearing even at zero phase difference, and we demonstrate that the flow direction of this current is controlled by the chirality of the magnetization configuration.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Superfluid Breakdown and Multiple Roton Gaps in Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates on an Optical Lattice

We investigate the superfluid phases of a Rashba spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate residing on a two dimensional square optical lattice in the presence of an effective Zeeman field $Ω$. At a critical value $Ω=Ω_c$, the single-particle spectrum $ E_k $ changes from having a set of four degenerate minima to a single minimum at $k=0$, corresponding to condensation at finite or zero momentum, respectively. We describe this quantum phase transition and the symmetry breaking of the condensate phases. We use the Bogoliubov theory to treat the superfluid phases and determine the phase diagram, the excitation spectrum and the sound velocity of the phonon excitations. A novel dynamically unstable superfluid regime occurring when $Ω$ is close to $Ω_c$ is analytically identified and the behavior of the condensate quantum depletion is discussed. Moreover, we show that there are two types of roton excitations occurring in the $Ω<Ω_c$ regime and obtain explicit values for the corresponding energy gaps.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Meissner Effect Probing of Odd-Frequency Triplet Pairing in Superconducting Spin Valves

Superconducting correlations which are long-ranged in magnetic systems have attracted much attention due to their spin-polarization properties and potential use in spintronic devices. Whereas experiments have demonstrated the slow decay of such correlations, it has proven more difficult to obtain a smoking gun signature of their odd-frequency character which is responsible, e.g. for their gapless behavior. We here demonstrate that the magnetic susceptibility response of a normal metal in contact with a superconducting spin-valve provides precisely this signature, namely in form of an anomalous "positive" Meissner effect which may be tuned back to a conventional "negative" Meissner response simply by altering the magnetization configuration of the spin-valve.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Superconducting Spintronics with Magnetic Domain Walls

The recent experimental demonstration of spin-polarized supercurrents offer a venue for establishment of a superconducting analogue to conventional spintronics. Whereas domain wall motion in purely magnetic structures is a well-studied topic, it is not clear how domain wall dynamics may influence superconductivity and if some functional property can be harnessed from such a scenario. Here, we demonstrate that domain wall motion in superconducting systems offers a unique way of controlling the quantum state of the superconductor. Considering both the diffusive and ballistic limits, we show that moving the domain wall to different locations in a Josephson junction will change the quantum ground state from being in a 0 state to a $π$ state. Remarkably, we also show that domain wall motion can be used to turn on and off superconductivity: the position of the domain wall determines the critical temperature $T_c$ and thus if the system is in a resistive state or not, causing even a quantum phase transition between the dissipationless and normal state at $T=0$. In this way, one achieves dynamical control over the superconducting state within a single sample by utilizing magnetic domain wall motion.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Singlet-Triplet Superconducting Quantum Magnetometer

Motivated by the recent experimental realization of a quantum interference transistor based on the superconducting proximity effect, we here demonstrate that the inclusion of a textured ferromagnet both strongly enhances the flux sensitivity of such a device and additionally allows for singlet-triplet switching by tuning a bias voltage. This functionality makes explicit use of the induced spin-triplet correlations due to the magnetic texture. Whereas the existence of such triplet correlations is well-known, our finding demonstrates how spin-triplet superconductivity may be utilized for concrete technology, namely to improve the functionality of ultra-sensitive magnetometers.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Superconducting Proximity Effect in Silicene: Spin-Valley Polarized Andreev Reflection, Non-Local Transport, and Supercurrent

We theoretically study the superconducting proximity effect in silicene, which features massive Dirac fermions with a tunable mass (band gap), and compute the conductance across a normal/superconductor (N/S) silicene junction, the non-local conductance of an N/S/N junction, and the supercurrent flowing in an S/N/S junction. It is demonstrated that the transport processes consisting of local and non-local Andreev reflection may be efficiently controlled via an external electric field owing to the buckled structure of silicene. In particular, we demonstrate that it is possible to obtain a fully spin-valley polarized crossed Andreev reflection process without any contamination of elastic cotunneling or local Andreev reflection, in stark contrast to ordinary metals. It is also shown that the supercurrent flowing in the S/N/S junction can be fully spin-valley polarized and that it is controllable by an external electric field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Asymmetric Ferromagnetic Resonance, Universal Walker Breakdown, and Counterflow Domain Wall Motion in the Presence of Multiple Spin-Orbit Torques

We study the motion of several types of domain wall profiles in spin-orbit coupled magnetic nanowires and also the influence of spin-orbit interaction on the ferromagnetic resonance of uniform magnetic films. We extend previous studies by fully considering not only the field-like contribution from the spin-orbit torque, but also the recently derived Slonczewski-like spin-orbit torque. We show that the latter interaction affects both the domain wall velocity and the Walker breakdown threshold non-trivially, which suggests that it should be accounted in experimental data analysis. We find that the presence of multiple spin-orbit torques may render the Walker breakdown to be universal in the sense that the threshold is completely independent on the material-dependent Gilbert damping, non-adiabaticity, and the chirality of the domain wall. We also find that domain wall motion against the current injection is sustained in the presence of multiple spin-orbit torques and that the wall profile will determine the qualitative influence of these different types of torques (e.g. field-like and Slonczewski-like). In addition, we consider a uniform ferromagnetic layer under a current bias, and find that the resonance frequency becomes asymmetric against the current direction in the presence of Slonczewski-like spin-orbit coupling. This is in contrast with those cases where such an interaction is absent, where the frequency is found to be symmetric with respect to the current direction. This finding shows that spin-orbit interactions may offer additional control over pumped and absorbed energy in a ferromagnetic resonance setup by manipulating the injected current direction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Anomalous domain wall velocity and Walker breakdown in hybrid systems with anisotropic exchange

It has recently been proposed that spin-transfer torques in magnetic systems with anisotropic exchange can be strongly enhanced, reducing the characteristic current density with up to four orders of magnitude compared to conventional setups. Motivated by this, we analytically solve the equations of motion in a collective-coordinate framework for this type of anisotropic exchange system, to investigate the domain wall dynamics in detail. In particular, we obtain analytical expressions for the maximum attainable domain wall velocity of such a setup and also for the occurrence of Walker breakdown. Surprisingly, we find that, in contrast to the standard case with domain wall motion driven by the nonadiabatic torque, the maximum velocity obtained via the anisotropic exchange torque is completely independent of the nonadiabaticity parameter beta, in spite of the torque itself being very large for small beta. Moreover, the Walker breakdown threshold has an opposite dependence on beta in these two cases; i.e., for the anisotropic exchange torque scenario, the threshold value decreases monotonically with beta. These findings are of importance to any practical application of the proposed giant spin-transfer torque in anisotropic exchange systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Chirality Sensitive Domain Wall Motion in Spin-Orbit Coupled Ferromagnets

Using the Lagrangian formalism, we solve analytically the equations of motion for current-induced domain-wall dynamics in a ferromagnet with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. An exact solution for the domain wall velocity is provided, including the effect of non-equilibrium conduction electron spin-density, Gilbert damping, and the Rashba interaction parameter. We demonstrate explicitly that the influence of spin-orbit interaction can be qualitatively different from the role of non-adiabatic spin-torque in the sense that the former is sensitive to the chirality of the domain wall whereas the latter is not: the domain wall velocity shows a reentrant behavior upon changing the chirality of the domain wall. This could be used to experimentally distinguish between the spin-orbit and non-adiabatic contribution to the wall speed. A quantitative estimate for the attainable domain wall velocity is given, based on an experimentally relevant set of parameters for the system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

φ-State and Inverted Fraunhofer Pattern in Nonaligned Josephson Junctions

A generic nonaligned Josephson junction in the presence of an external magnetic field is theoretically considered and an unusual flux-dependent current-phase relation (CPR) is revealed. We explain the origin of the anomalous CPR via the current density flow induced by the external field within a two-dimensional quasiclassical Keldysh-Usadel framework. In particular, it is demonstrated that nonaligned Josephson junctions can be utilized to obtain a ground-state other than 0 and π, corresponding to a so-called φ-junction, which is tunable via the external magnetic flux. Furthermore, we show that the standard Fraunhofer central peak of the critical supercurrent may be inverted into a local minimum solely due to geometrical factors in planar junctions. This yields good consistency with a recent experimental measurement displaying such type of puzzling feature [R. S. Keizer et al, Nature 439, 825 (2006)].

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Proximity effect with noncentrosymmetric superconductors

We describe the superconducting proximity effect taking place in a contact between a noncentrosymmetric superconductor and a diffusive normal/ferromagnetic metal within the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity. By solving numerically the Usadel equation with boundary conditions valid for arbitrary interface transparency, we show that the analysis of the proximity-modified local density of states in the normal side can be used to obtain information about the exotic superconductivity of noncentrosymmetric materials. We point out the signatures of triplet pairing, the coexistence of triplet and singlet pairing, and particular orbital symmetries of the pair potential. Exploiting the directional dependence of the spin polarization pair breaking effect on the triplet correlations, we show how the order relation between triplet and singlet gaps can be discriminated and that an estimation of the specific gap ratio is possible in some cases.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Spin-Transfer and Exchange Torques in Ferromagnetic Superconductors

We consider how superconducting correlations influence spin-transfer torques in ferromagnetic superconductors. It is demonstrated that there is a novel torque arising from particle-hole interference that depends on the U(1) phase associated with the superconducting order parameter. We also show that there is an equilibrium exchange torque between two ferromagnetic superconductors in contact via a normal metal mediated by Andreev states. The latter equilibrium magnetic torque is also sensitive to spin-resolved phase differences in the superconducting order parameters as well as to an externally applied phase difference.

cond-mat.supr-con↗