Giant triplet proximity effect in superconducting pseudo spin valves with engineered anisotropy

X. L. Wang; A. Di Bernardo; N. Banerjee; A. Wells; F. S. Bergeret; M. G. Blamire; J. W. A. Robinson

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.89.140508

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Giant triplet proximity effect in superconducting pseudo spin valves with engineered anisotropy

X. L. Wang, A. Di Bernardo, N. Banerjee, A. Wells, F. S. Bergeret, M. G. Blamire, J. W. A. Robinson

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.89.140508 · Physical Review B

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Abstract

The proximity coupling of a thin superconducting layer and an inhomogeneous ferromagnet can lead to a significant reduction of the critical temperature due to the generation of spin-polarized triplet Cooper pairs. We report critical temperature measurements of Co/Cu/NiFe(Py)/Cu/Nb superconducting pseudo spin valves (PSVs) in which the magnetization of the soft layer (Py) can be independently rotated in-plane with a magnetic field to create an angle (θ) between it and the magnetization of Co. Here we observe results consistent with spin-triplet theory and demonstrate large changes in ΔTC up to −120 mK as the Py layer is rotated from 0° (Co and Py are parallel) to 90° (Co and Py are orthogonal), which offers the potential for active control of the superconducting state. The key to this achievement is engineered magnetic anisotropy in Py, which enables well-defined control over the magnetization configuration of the PSV.

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