Superconducting∕ferromagnetic proximity effect mediated by Cr spacer layers

I. A. Garifullin; D. A. Tikhonov; N. N. Garif’yanov; M. Z. Fattakhov; L. R. Tagirov; K. Theis-Bröhl; K. Westerholt; H. Zabel

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.70.054505

Superconducting∕ferromagnetic proximity effect mediated by Cr spacer layers

I. A. Garifullin, D. A. Tikhonov, N. N. Garif’yanov, M. Z. Fattakhov, L. R. Tagirov, K. Theis-Bröhl, K. Westerholt, H. Zabel

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.70.054505 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

We have studied the superconducting proximity effect in the thin film system Fe∕Cr∕V∕Cr∕Fe where the Cr layers play the role of screening layers between the superconducting V-layer and the strongly pair breaking Fe-layers. When keeping the thickness of the Fe-layers dFe fixed and varying the thickness of the Cr-layers dCr, the superconducting transition temperature Tc first rises reaching a maximum at dCr=40Å and then sharply drops for larger Cr-thickness. Keeping dCr constant and varying dFe the superconducting transition temperature becomes independent on dFe for dCr>40Å. The results demonstrate that the Cooper pairs penetrate into the Cr-layer to a depth of about 40Å. From our experimental results we suggest that the Cr-layer is nonmagnetic for dCr<40Å and undergoes a transition to an incommensurate spin density wave state for dCr>40Å.