2021/02/05 by R. L. Seeger, Rafael Lopes Seeger, Guillaume Forestier +14
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Antiferromagnetism #Coherence length #Condensed matter physics #Cooper pair #Critical field #Ferromagnetism #London penetration depth #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials science #Penetration depth #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum mechanics #Superconductivity #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.104.054413
published as Phys. Rev. B 104, 054413 (2021)
arxiv created 2021/02/05 · openalex publication_date 2021/08/10 · arxiv updated 2021/08/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Suppression of superconductivity due to the proximity effect between a superconductor and a ferromagnet can be partially alleviated when a Cooper pair simultaneously samples different directions of the short-range exchange field. The superconductor's critical temperature, TC, is therefore expected to partially recover when the ferromagnet is in a multidomain state, as opposed to a single-domain state. Here, we discuss series of experiments performed with ferromagnet(Pt/Co)/spacer(IrMn and Pt)/superconductor(NbN) heterostructures. By tuning the various parameters in play, e.g., superconducting coherence length-to-thicknesses ratio, and domain sizes, we obtained up to 10% recovery of the superconducting critical temperature \mathrm\ensuremathΔTC/TC. This large-scale recovery made investigations possible. In particular, from the spacer thickness dependence of \mathrm\ensuremathΔTC/TC, it was possible to deduce the characteristic length for Cooper pair penetration in an IrMn antiferromagnet. This information is crucial for electronic transport, and up to now has been difficult to access experimentally for antiferromagnets.