Triplet pair correlations and nonmonotonic supercurrent decay with Cr thickness in Nb/Cr/Fe/Nb Josephson devices

J. W. A. Robinson; N. Banerjee; M. G. Blamire

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.89.104505

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Triplet pair correlations and nonmonotonic supercurrent decay with Cr thickness in Nb/Cr/Fe/Nb Josephson devices

J. W. A. Robinson, N. Banerjee, M. G. Blamire

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.89.104505 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

Supercurrents carry charge but not spin in the vast majority of superconductors. This is because the charge carriers are Cooper pairs which are formed of electrons with antiparallel spins (singlet pairs). It is now established that if singlet pairs propagate through a superconductor interface with an inhomogeneous ferromagnet, triplet pair correlations form so the supercurrents can acquire a net spin component. Although the spins at sputter-deposited Fe/Cr interfaces can be frustrated due to surface roughness and interdiffusion, an antiferromagnetic spin density wave (SDW) state can still form in Cr close to the interface. Here, we show evidence for triplet pair correlations in Josephson junctions with Cr/Fe and Cr/Fe/Cr barriers. Although the exact mechanism of pair conversion is unknown, we propose a simple model in which a SDW state in Cr and frustrated spins at the Cr/Fe interfaces serve as spin-mixers for generating triplet supercurrents and so provide a potential means to generating large superconducting spin current densities.

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.	—	Pressure not reported	unknown