Magnetic switching of the superconducting transition temperature in layered ferromagnetic/superconducting hybrids: Spin switch versus stray field effects

R. Steiner; P. Ziemann

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.74.094504

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Magnetic switching of the superconducting transition temperature in layered ferromagnetic/superconducting hybrids: Spin switch versus stray field effects

R. Steiner, P. Ziemann

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.74.094504 · Physical Review B

T1

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Abstract

The resistance and magnetization behavior of [ferromagnetic (FM)/superconducting (SC)/ferromagnetic (FM)] trilayers of the type (Co∕Nb∕Fe) was experimentally analyzed and related to their superconducting transition temperature Tc. As opposed to what is expected by proximity effect theory, Tc exhibited a minimum in case of an antiparallel relative orientation of the magnetization of the two sandwiching FM layers. Though this result is consistent with the predictions of spin-imbalance theory, additional experiments on exchange-biased CoO∕Co∕Nb∕Fe systems revealed strong Tc changes, even for a fixed relative magnetization orientation of the FM layers pointing to stray fields, rather than magnetization orientations, as causing the observed Tc shifts. This idea is corroborated by additional measurements on Fe∕Nb and Co∕Nb bilayers, which clearly show Tc changes related to specific magnetic domain configurations with a Tc maximum in the magnetically saturated state of the FM layer. Complementary micromagnetic simulations, delivering also the magnitude of stray fields, support the picture of influencing Tc by controlling and switching domain configurations.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
Nb Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	7.6	Pressure not reported	unknown
Nb Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	3.8	Pressure not reported	midpoint
Nb Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	6.3	Pressure not reported	midpoint
La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/YBa2Cu3O7 Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown