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


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Robinson, JWA 
Banerjee, N 
Blamire, MG 

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.

Description

Keywords

51 Physical Sciences, 5104 Condensed Matter Physics

Journal Title

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1098-0121
1550-235X

Volume Title

89

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
The work was funded by the UK Royal Society and the European Research Council (AIG "Superspin").