1,409 research outputs found
Transport and magnetization dynamics in a superconductor/single-molecule magnet/superconductor junction
We study dc-transport and magnetization dynamics in a junction of arbitrary
transparency consisting of two spin-singlet superconducting leads connected via
a single classical spin precessing at the frequency . The presence of
the spin in the junction provides different transmission amplitudes for spin-up
and spin-down quasiparticles as well as a time-dependent spin-flip transmission
term. For a phase biased junction, we show that a steady-state superconducting
charge current flows through the junction and that an out-of-equilibrium
circularly polarized spin current, of frequency , is emitted in the
leads. Detailed understanding of the charge and spin currents is obtained in
the entire parameter range. In the adiabatic regime,
where is the superconducting gap, and for high transparencies of the
junction, a strong suppression of the current takes place around \vp \approx
0 due to an abrupt change in the occupation of the Andreev bound-states. At
higher values of the phase and/or precession frequency, extended
(quasi-particle like) states compete with the bound-states in order to carry
the current. Well below the superconducting transition, these results are shown
to be weakly affected by the back-action of the spin current on the dynamics of
the precessing spin. Indeed, we show that the Gilbert damping due to the
quasi-particle spin current is strongly suppressed at low-temperatures, which
goes along with a shift of the precession frequency due to the condensate. The
results obtained may be of interest for on-going experiments in the field of
molecular spintronics.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures (v3) Minor modifications per referee's comments.
No change in results. (v2) 2 authors added, 1 reference added (Ref. 25), no
change in the text and result
Interaction of a Nanomagnet with a Weak Superconducting Link
We study electromagnetic interaction of a nanomagnet with a weak
superconducting link. Equations that govern coupled dynamics of the two systems
are derived and investigated numerically. We show that the presence of a small
magnet in the proximity of a weak link may be detected through Shapiro-like
steps caused by the precession of the magnetic moment. Despite very weak
magnetic field generated by the weak link, a time-dependent bias voltage
applied to the link can initiate a non-linear dynamics of the nanomagnet that
leads to the reversal of its magnetic moment. We also consider quantum problem
in which a nanomagnet interacting with a weak link is treated as a two-state
spin system due to quantum tunneling between spin-up and spin-down states.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Quantum phase slips in a confined geometry
We consider tunneling of vortices across a superconducting film that is both
narrow and short (and connected to bulk superconducting leads at the ends). We
find that in the superconducting state the resistance, at low values of the
temperature (T) and current, does not follow the power-law dependence on T
characteristic of longer samples but is exponential in 1/T. The coefficient of
1/T in the exponent depends on the length or, equivalently, the total
normal-state resistance of the sample. These conclusions persist in the
one-dimensional limit, which is similar to the problem of quantum phase slips
in an ultra-narrow short wire.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure; published in Phys. Rev.
Spectroscopy of phonons and spin torques in magnetic point contacts
Phonon spectroscopy is used to investigate the mechanism of current-induced
spin torques in nonmagnetic/ferromagnetic (N/F) point contacts. Magnetization
excitations observed in the magneto-conductance of the point contacts are
pronounced for diffusive and thermal contacts, where the electrons experience
significant scattering in the contact region. We find no magnetic excitations
in highly ballistic contacts. Our results show that impurity scattering at the
N/F interface is the origin of the new single-interface spin torque effect.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figs., accepted for publication in PR
Spin-polarized Josephson and quasiparticle currents in superconducting spin-filter tunnel junctions
We present a theoretical study of the effect of spin-filtering on the
Josephson and dissipative quasiparticle currents in a superconducting tunnel
junction. By combining the quasiclassical Green's functions and the tunneling
Hamiltonian method we describe the transport properties of a generic junction
consisting of two superconducting leads with an effective exchange field h
separated by a spin-filter insulating barrier. We show that besides the
tunneling of Cooper pairs with total spin-projection Sz = 0 there is another
contribution to the Josephson current due to equal-spin Cooper pairs. The
latter is finite and not affected by the spin-filter effect provided that the
fields h and the magnetization of the barrier are non-collinear . We also
determine the quasiparticle current for a symmetric junction and show that the
differential conductance may exhibit peaks at different values of the voltage
depending on the polarization of the spin-filter, and the relative angle
between the exchange fields and the magnetization of the barrier. Our findings
provide a plausible explanation for existing experiments on Josephson junctions
with magnetic barriers, predict new effects and show how spin-polarized
supercurrents in hybrid structures can be created.Comment: 5 pages; 3 figure
Impurity band in clean superconducting weak links
Weak impurity scattering produces a narrow band with a finite density of
states near the phase difference in the mid-gap energy spectrum of
a macroscopic superconducting weak link. The equivalent distribution of
transmission coefficients of various cunducting quantum channels is found.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, changed conten
Single-dopant resonance in a single-electron transistor
Single dopants in semiconductor nanostructures have been studied in great
details recently as they are good candidates for quantum bits, provided they
are coupled to a detector. Here we report coupling of a single As donor atom to
a single-electron transistor (SET) in a silicon nanowire field-effect
transistor. Both capacitive and tunnel coupling are achieved, the latter
resulting in a dramatic increase of the conductance through the SET, by up to
one order of magnitude. The experimental results are well explained by the rate
equations theory developed in parallel with the experiment.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Magnetic interference patterns in superconducting junctions: Effects of anharmonic current-phase relations
A microscopic theory of the magnetic-field modulation of critical currents is
developed for plane Josephson junctions with anharmonic current-phase
relations. The results obtained allow examining temperature-dependent
deviations of the modulation from the conventional interference pattern. For
tunneling through localized states in symmetric short junctions with a
pronounced anharmonic behavior, the deviations are obtained and shown to depend
on distribution of channel transparencies. For constant transparency the
deviations vanish not only near Tc, but also at T=0. If Dorokhov bimodal
distribution for transparency eigenvalues holds, the averaged deviation
increases with decreasing temperature and takes its maximum at T=0.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Spontaneous supercurrent induced by ferromagnetic pi-junctions
We present magnetization measurements of mesoscopic superconducting niobium
loops containing a ferromagnetic (PdNi) pi-junction. The loops are prepared on
top of the active area of a micro Hall-sensor based on high mobility
GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. We observe asymmetric switching of the loop
between different magnetization states when reversing the sweep direction of
the magnetic field. This provides evidence for a spontaneous current induced by
the intrinsic phase shift of the pi-junction. In addition, the presence of the
spontaneous current near zero applied field is directly revealed by an increase
of the magnetic moment with decreasing temperature, which results in half
integer flux quantization in the loop at low temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Non-equilibrium effects in a Josephson junction coupled to a precessing spin
We present a theoretical study of a Josephson junction consisting of two
s-wave superconducting leads coupled over a classical spin. When an external
magnetic field is applied, the classical spin will precess with the Larmor
frequency. This magnetically active interface results in a time-dependent
boundary condition with different tunneling amplitudes for spin-up and
spin-down quasiparticles and where the precession produces spin-flip scattering
processes. We show that as a result, the Andreev states develop sidebands and a
non-equilibrium population which depend on the precession frequency and the
angle between the classical spin and the external magnetic field. The Andreev
states lead to a steady-state Josephson current whose current-phase relation
could be used for characterizing the precessing spin. In addition to the charge
transport, a magnetization current is also generated.This spin current is
time-dependent and its polarization axis rotates with the same precession
frequency as the classical spin.Comment: 20 pages, 26 figure
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