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Enhanced spin pumping into superconductors provides evidence for superconducting pure spin currents.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Jeon, Kun-Rok 
Ferguson, Andrew J 
Kurebayashi, Hidekazu 
Cohen, Lesley F 

Abstract

Unlike conventional spin-singlet Cooper pairs, spin-triplet pairs can carry spin1,2. Triplet supercurrents were discovered in Josephson junctions with metallic ferromagnet spacers, where spin transport can occur only within the ferromagnet and in conjunction with a charge current. Ferromagnetic resonance injects a pure spin current from a precessing ferromagnet into adjacent non-magnetic materials3,4. For spin-singlet pairing, the ferromagnetic resonance spin pumping efficiency decreases below the critical temperature (Tc) of a coupled superconductor5,6. Here we present ferromagnetic resonance experiments in which spin sink layers with strong spin-orbit coupling are added to the superconductor. Our results show that the induced spin currents, rather than being suppressed, are substantially larger in the superconducting state compared with the normal state; although further work is required to establish the details of the spin transport process, we show that this cannot be mediated by quasiparticles and is most likely a triplet pure spin supercurrent.

Description

Keywords

51 Physical Sciences, 5104 Condensed Matter Physics

Journal Title

Nat Mater

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1476-1122
1476-4660

Volume Title

17

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N017242/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P024947/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/S019367/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R00661X/1)