Standard, inverse, and triplet spin-valve effects in F1/S/F2 systems

Sergei V. Mironov (1, 2) , Alexandre I. Buzdin (1, 3)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine
2 Institute for Physics of Microstructures of the RAS
3 IUF - Institut universitaire de France

We demonstrate that, contrary to common belief, the critical temperature Tc of clean F1/S/F2 spin valves can depend nonmonotonically on the angle between the magnetic moments of the ferromagnetic F1 and F2 layers. Depending on the system parameters the minimum of Tc may correspond to a parallel, antiparallel, or noncollinear mutual orientation of magnetic moments. Such anomalous behavior can reveal itself only if the ferromagnetic layers differ from each other and it completely disappears in the dirty limit.

Mots clés: Proximity effects Andreev reflection SN and SNS junctions; Multilayers superlattices heterostructures; Superconducting device characterization; design and modeling

Domaines: Supraconductivité [cond-mat.supr-con]

Sergei V. Mironov, Alexandre I. Buzdin. Standard, inverse, and triplet spin-valve effects in F1/S/F2 systems. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2014, 89 (14), pp.144505 (1-8). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.89.144505⟩. ⟨hal-01063714⟩