531 research outputs found
Sudden Critical Current Drops Induced in S/F Structures
In the search for new physical properties of S/F structures, we have found
that the superconductor critical current can be controlled by the domain state
of the neighboring ferromagnet. The superconductor is a thin wire of thickness
d_{s} ~ 2 xi_{S}. Nb/Co and Nb/Py (Permalloy Ni_{80}Fe_{20}) bilayer structures
were grown with a significant magnetic anisotropy. Critical current
measurements of Nb/Co structures with ferromagnet thickness d_{F} > 30nm show
sudden drops in two very defined steps when the measurements are made along the
hard axes direction (i.e. current track parallel to hard anisotropy axes
direction). These drops disappear when they are made along the easy axis
direction or when the ferromagnet thickness is below 30nm. The drops are
accompanied by vortex flux flow. In addition magnetorestistance measurements
close to Tc show a sharp increase near saturation fields of the ferromagnet.
Similar results are reproduced in Nb/Py bilayer structure with the ferromagnet
thickness d_{F} ~ 50nm along the easy anisotropy axes. These results are
explained as being due to spontaneous vortex formation and flow induced by
Bloch domain walls of the ferromagnet underneath. We argue these Bloch domain
walls produce a 2D vortex-antivortex lattice structure.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Whole-brain patterns of 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging in Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies
Acknowledgements We thank Craig Lambert for his help in processing the MRS data. The study was funded by the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust (grant ref: 05/JTA) and was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre and the Biomedical Research Unit in Lewy Body Dementia based at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and Newcastle University and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia based at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Controlling the superconducting transition by spin-orbit coupling
Whereas there exists considerable evidence for the conversion of singlet
Cooper pairs into triplet Cooper pairs in the presence of inhomogeneous
magnetic fields, recent theoretical proposals have suggested an alternative way
to exert control over triplet generation: intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in a
homogeneous ferromagnet coupled to a superconductor. Here, we proximity-couple
Nb to an asymmetric Pt/Co/Pt trilayer, which acts as an effective spin-orbit
coupled ferromagnet owing to structural inversion asymmetry. Unconventional
modulation of the superconducting critical temperature as a function of
in-plane and out-of- plane applied magnetic fields suggests the presence of
triplets that can be controlled by the magnetic orientation of a single
homogeneous ferromagnet. Our studies demonstrate for the first time an active
role of spin-orbit coupling in controlling the triplets -- an important step
towards the realization of novel superconducting spintronic devices.Comment: 11 pages + 4 figures + supplemental informatio
Critical current of a Josephson junction containing a conical magnet
We calculate the critical current of a
superconductor/ferromagnetic/superconductor (S/FM/S) Josephson junction in
which the FM layer has a conical magnetic structure composed of an in-plane
rotating antiferromagnetic phase and an out-of-plane ferromagnetic component.
In view of the realistic electronic properties and magnetic structures that can
be formed when conical magnets such as Ho are grown with a polycrystalline
structure in thin-film form by methods such as direct current sputtering and
evaporation, we have modeled this situation in the dirty limit with a large
magnetic coherence length (). This means that the electron mean free
path is much smaller than the normalized spiral length which in
turn is much smaller than (with as the length a complete
spiral makes along the growth direction of the FM). In this physically
reasonable limit we have employed the linearized Usadel equations: we find that
the triplet correlations are short ranged and manifested in the critical
current as a rapid oscillation on the scale of . These rapid
oscillations in the critical current are superimposed on a slower oscillation
which is related to the singlet correlations. Both oscillations decay on the
scale of . We derive an analytical solution and also describe a
computational method for obtaining the critical current as a function of the
conical magnetic layer thickness.Comment: Extended version of the published paper. Additional information about
the computational method is included in the appendi
Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Late-Life Depression: Higher Global Connectivity and More Long Distance Connections
Functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings in the resting-state (RS)
from the human brain are characterized by spontaneous low-frequency
fluctuations in the blood oxygenation level dependent signal that reveal
functional connectivity (FC) via their spatial synchronicity. This RS study
applied network analysis to compare FC between late-life depression (LLD)
patients and control subjects. Raw cross-correlation matrices (CM) for LLD were
characterized by higher FC. We analyzed the small-world (SW) and modular
organization of these networks consisting of 110 nodes each as well as the
connectivity patterns of individual nodes of the basal ganglia. Topological
network measures showed no significant differences between groups. The
composition of top hubs was similar between LLD and control subjects, however
in the LLD group posterior medial-parietal regions were more highly connected
compared to controls. In LLD, a number of brain regions showed connections with
more distant neighbors leading to an increase of the average Euclidean distance
between connected regions compared to controls. In addition, right caudate
nucleus connectivity was more diffuse in LLD. In summary, LLD was associated
with overall increased FC strength and changes in the average distance between
connected nodes, but did not lead to global changes in SW or modular
organization
Thin-Film Trilayer Manganate Junctions
Spin-dependent conductance across a manganate-barrier-manganate junction has
recently been demonstrated. The junction is a LaSrMnO%
-SrTiO-La SrMnO trilayer device supporting
current-perpendicular transport. Large magnetoresistance of up to a factor of
five change was observed in these junctions at 4.2K in a relatively low field
of the order of 100 Oe. Temperature and bias dependent studies revealed a
complex junction interface structure whose materials physics has yet to be
understood.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures. To appear in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A
vol.356 (1998
High curie temperatures in ferromagnetic Cr-doped AlN thin films
Al1-xCrxN thin films with 0.02less than or equal toxless than or equal to0.1 were deposited by reactive co-sputtering onto c-plane (001) sapphire. Room-temperature ferromagnetism with a coercive field of 85 Oe was observed in samples with chromium contents as low as x=0.027 (2.7%). With increasing Cr content the mean magnetic moment is strongly suppressed, with a maximum saturation moment of 0.62 and 0.71 mu(B) per Cr atom at 300 and 50 K, respectively. We show that the Curie temperature of Al1-xCrxN for x=0.027 is greater than 900 K. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics
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