Clustering of vortex matter in superconductor-ferromagnet superlattices

A. A. Bespalov (1) , A. S. Mel'Nikov (2, 3) , Alexandre I. Buzdin (1)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine
2 Institute for Physics of Microstructures of the RAS
3 UNN - Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod

Metamaterials combining superconducting (S) and ferromagnetic (F) compounds permit to attend new functionalities and reveal unusual counterintuitive effects. Here we show that SF superlattices may display a very special electrodynamics due to the nonlocal polarization of the magnetic subsystem, making the intervortex interaction attractive at some distances. In such superlattices the vortex matter can form an intermediate state with alternating vortex and Meissner phases. Tuning the parameters of the F and S subsystems one can engineer the phase diagram of the vortex matter. We provide concrete recommendations for the proper choice of compounds for these SF hybrid structures.

Mots clés: Vortex phases (includes vortex lattices - vortex liquids - and vortex glasses); Superconductivity phase diagram; Phenomenological theories (two-fluid - Ginzburg-Landau - etc.)

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

A. A. Bespalov, A. S. Mel'Nikov, Alexandre I. Buzdin. Clustering of vortex matter in superconductor-ferromagnet superlattices. EPL - Europhysics Letters, 2015, 110 (3), pp.37003 (1-6). ⟨10.1209/0295-5075/110/37003⟩. ⟨hal-01174970⟩