2007/06/12 by Benoît Crouzy, B. Crouzy, Sylvain Tollis +3
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Coherence length #Condensed matter physics #Domain (mathematical analysis) #Ferromagnetism #Josephson effect #Layer (electronics) #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Magnetic field #Magnetization #Materials science #Nanotechnology #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Proximity effect (electron beam lithography) #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Superconductivity #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.76.134502
published as Phys. Rev. B 76, 134502 (2007) · 9 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2007/06/12 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study a diffusive superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor (SFS) junction with in-plane ferromagnetic domains. Close to the superconducting transition temperature, we describe the proximity effect in the junction with the linearized Usadel equations [Phys. Rev. Lett. 25, 507 (1970)]. We find that properties of such a junction depend on the size of the domains relative to the magnetic coherence length. In the case of large domains, the junction exhibits transitions to the \ensuremathπ state, similar to a single-domain SFS junction. In the case of small domains, the magnetization effectively averages out, and the junction is always in the zero state, similar to a superconductor-normal metal-superconductor junction. In both those regimes, the influence of domain walls may be approximately described as an effective spin-flip scattering. We also study the inhomogeneous distribution of the local current density in the junction. Close to the 0\text\ensuremath-\ensuremathπ transitions, the directions of the critical current may be opposite in the vicinity of the domain wall and in the middle of the domains.