Remotely induced magnetism in a normal metal using a superconducting spin-valve

Superconducting spintronics has emerged in the past decade as a promising new field that seeks to open a new dimension for nanoelectronics by utilizing the internal spin structure of the superconducting Cooper pair as a new degree of freedom. Its basic building blocks are spin-triplet Cooper pairs w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2016-01, Vol.12 (1), p.57-61
Main Authors: Flokstra, M. G., Satchell, N., Kim, J., Burnell, G., Curran, P. J., Bending, S. J., Cooper, J. F. K., Kinane, C. J., Langridge, S., Isidori, A., Pugach, N., Eschrig, M., Luetkens, H., Suter, A., Prokscha, T., Lee, S. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cooper pairs
Devices
Double layer
Ferromagnetism
Low energy
Magnetization
Superconductivity
Superconductors
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Summary:Superconducting spintronics has emerged in the past decade as a promising new field that seeks to open a new dimension for nanoelectronics by utilizing the internal spin structure of the superconducting Cooper pair as a new degree of freedom. Its basic building blocks are spin-triplet Cooper pairs with equally aligned spins, which are promoted by proximity of a conventional superconductor to a ferromagnetic material with inhomogeneous macroscopic magnetization. Using low-energy muon spin-rotation experiments we find an unanticipated effect, in contradiction with the existing theoretical models of superconductivity and ferromagnetism: the appearance of a magnetization in a thin layer of a non-magnetic metal (gold), separated from a ferromagnetic double layer by a 50-nm-thick superconducting layer of Nb. The effect can be controlled either by temperature or by using a magnetic field to control the state of the remote ferromagnetic elements, and may act as a basic building block for a new generation of quantum interference devices based on the spin of a Cooper pair.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/nphys3486