Unconventional superconducting states induced in a ferromagnet by a d-wave superconductor

We develop a quasi-classical theory for the superconducting proximity effect in a ballistic ferromagnetic layer in contact with a d-wave superconductor. In agreement with recent experiments we find that the density of states oscillate around the normal state value with varying the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer. We show that the phase, the amplitude, and the period of these oscillations depend on the orientation of the superconductor. This effect reveals spatial oscillations and anisotropy of the induced superconducting correlations in the ferromagnet.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (included

Magnetic field effect in hybrid nanostructures

We examine the effect of the magnetic field on the proximity effect in nanostructures, self consistently using the Bogoliubov-deGennes formalism within the two dimensional extended Hubbard model. We calculate the local density of states and the pair amplitude. We study several nanostructures: superconductor - two dimensional electron gas, superconductor - ferromagnet. In these structures the magnetic field can be considered as a modulation parameter for the proximity effect.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Andreev bound states in normal and ferromagnet/high-Tc superconducting tunnel junctions

Ag/BSCCO and Fe/Ag/BSCCO planar tunnel junctions were constructed in order to study experimentally the effect of an exchange potential on the spin polarized current transported through Andreev bound states appearing at the interface with a superconductor with broken time reversal pairing symmetry. The zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) resulting from the Andreev bound states (ABS) is split into two symmetric peaks shifted at finite energies when the counterlectrode is normal. Four asymmetric peaks are observed when the ferromagnetic spin polarized charge reservoir is added, due to the combined effect of a spin-filtering exchange energy in the barrier, which is a spin dependent phenomenon, and the spin independent effect of a broken time reversal symmetry (BTRS). The polarization in the iron layer leads to asymmetry. Due to the shift of ABS peaks to finite energies, the conductance at zero energy behaves as predicted by recent theoretical developments for pure d-wave junctions without Andreev reflections.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to Physica

Local Density of States and Order Parameter Configurations in Layered Ferromagnet-Superconductor Structures

We analyze the local density of states (LDOS) of heterostructures consisting of alternating ferromagnet, $F$, and superconductor, $S$, layers. We consider structures of the $SFS$ and $SFSFSFS$ type, with thin nanometer scale $F$ and $S$ layers, within the ballistic regime. The spin-splitting effects of the ferromagnet and the mutual coupling between the $S$ regions, yield several nontrivial stable and metastable pair amplitude configurations, and we find that the details of the spatial behavior of the pair amplitude govern the calculated electronic spectra. These are reflected in discernible signatures of the LDOS. The roles that the magnetic exchange energy, interface scattering strength, and the Fermi wavevector mismatch each have on the LDOS for the different allowed junction configurations, are systematically investigated.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures. Figures are screen captures, high resolution figures are available from either autho

Superconductor-Ferromagnet Bi-Layers: a Comparison of s-Wave and d-Wave Order Parameters

We study superconductor-ferromagnet bi-layers, not only for s-wave but also for d-wave superconductors. We observe oscillations of the critical temperature when varying the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer for both s-wave and d-wave superconductors. However, for a rotated d-wave order parameter the critical temperature differs considerably from that for the unrotated case. In addition we calculate the density of states for different thicknesses of the ferromagnetic layer; the results reflect the oscillatory behaviour of the superconducting correlations.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Spin polarized transport in the weak-link between ff-wave superconductors

The spin current in the Josephson junction as a weak link (interface) between misorientated triplet superconductors is investigated theoretically for the models of the order parameter in $UPt_{3}$. Green functions of the system are obtained from the quasiclassical Eilenberger equations. The analytical results for the charge and spin currents are illustrated by numerical calculations for the certain misorientation angles of gap vector of superconductors. As the main result of this paper, it is found that, at some values of the phase difference, at which the charge current is exactly zero, the spin current has its maximum value. Furthermore, it is shown that the origin of spin current is the misorientation between gap vectors of triplet superconductors.Comment: 7pages, 9 figure