Magnetoanisotropic Andreev Reflection in Ferromagnet-Superconductor Junctions

Petra Högl; Alex Matos-Abiague; Igor Žutić; Jaroslav Fabian

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.116601

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Magnetoanisotropic Andreev Reflection in Ferromagnet-Superconductor Junctions

Petra Högl, Alex Matos-Abiague, Igor Žutić, Jaroslav Fabian

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.116601 · Physical Review Letters

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Abstract

Andreev reflection spectroscopy of ferromagnet-superconductor (FS) junctions is an important probe of spin polarization. We theoretically investigate spin-polarized transport in FS junctions in the presence of Rashba and Dresselhaus interfacial spin-orbit fields and show that Andreev reflection can be controlled by changing the magnetization orientation. We predict a giant in- and out-of-plane magnetoanisotropy of the junction conductance. If the ferromagnet is highly spin polarized—in the half-metal limit—the magnetoanisotropic Andreev reflection depends universally on the spin-orbit fields only. Our results show that Andreev reflection spectroscopy can be used for sensitive probing of interfacial spin-orbit fields in a FS junction.