Asymmetric ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet switch

P. Cadden-Zimansky, Ya. B. Bazaliy, L. M. Litvak, J. S. Jiang, J. Pearson, J. Y. Gu, Chun-Yeol You, M. R. Beasley, and S. D. Bader
Phys. Rev. B 77, 184501 – Published 1 May 2008

Abstract

In layered ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet (F1/S/F2) structures, the critical temperature Tc of the superconductors depends on the magnetic orientation of the ferromagnetic layers F1 and F2 relative to each other. So far, the experimentally observed magnitude of change in Tc for structures utilizing weak ferromagnets has been 2 orders of magnitude smaller than is expected from calculations. We theoretically show that such a discrepancy can result from the asymmetry of F/S boundaries, and we test this possibility by performing experiments on structures where F1 and F2 are independently varied. Our experimental results indicate that asymmetric boundaries are not the source of the discrepancy. If boundary asymmetry is causing the suppressed magnitude of Tc changes, it may only be possible to detect in structures with thinner ferromagnetic layers.

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  • Received 13 December 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.77.184501

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

P. Cadden-Zimansky1,2, Ya. B. Bazaliy3,4, L. M. Litvak5, J. S. Jiang1, J. Pearson1, J. Y. Gu6, Chun-Yeol You7, M. R. Beasley5, and S. D. Bader1

  • 1Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
  • 2Physics and Astronomy Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
  • 4Institute of Magnetism, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, 36-b Vernadsky Boulevard, Kyiv 03142, Ukraine
  • 5Applied Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Long Beach, California 90840, USA
  • 7Department of Physics, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, South Korea

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Issue

Vol. 77, Iss. 18 — 1 May 2008

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