Superconducting spin valves based on antiferromagnet/superconductor/antiferromagnet heterostructures

G. A. Bobkov; V. M. Gordeeva; Lina Johnsen Kamra; Simran Chourasia; A. M. Bobkov; Akashdeep Kamra; I. V. Bobkova

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.109.184504

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Superconducting spin valves based on antiferromagnet/superconductor/antiferromagnet heterostructures

G. A. Bobkov, V. M. Gordeeva, Lina Johnsen Kamra, Simran Chourasia, A. M. Bobkov, Akashdeep Kamra, I. V. Bobkova

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.109.184504 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

Proximity effect at superconductor/antiferromagnet (S/AF) interfaces, which manifests itself as generation of Néel-type triplet correlations, leads to sensitivity of the superconducting critical temperature to the mutual orientation of the AF Néel vectors in AF/S/AF trilayers, which is called the spin-valve effect. Here we predict that the spin-valve effect in AF/S/AF heterostructures crucially depends on the value of the chemical potential of the superconducting interlayer due to the occurrence of the finite-momentum Néel triplet correlations. In addition, we investigate equal-spin-triplet correlations, which appear in AF/S/AF structures for nonaligned Néel vectors of the AFs, and their role in the nonmonotonic dependence of the superconducting critical temperature of the AF/S/AF structure on the mutual orientation of the AF Néel vectors. The influence of impurities on the spin-valve effect is also investigated.