84 research outputs found
Spin Torques in Point Contacts to Exchange-Biased Ferromagnetic Films
Hysteretic magneto-resistance of point contacts formed between non-magnetic
tips and single ferromagnetic films exchange-pinned by antiferromagnetic films
is investigated. The analysis of the measured current driven and field driven
hysteresis agrees with the recently proposed model of the surface spin-valve,
where the spin orientation at the interface can be different from that in the
bulk of the film. The switching in magneto-resistance at low fields is observed
to depend significantly on the direction of the exchange pinning, which allows
identifying this transition as a reversal of interior spins of the pinned
ferromagnetic films. The switching at higher fields is thus due to a spin
reversal in the point contact core, at the top surface of the ferromagnet, and
does not exhibit any clear field offset when the exchange-pinning direction or
the magnetic field direction is varied. This magnitude of the switching field
of the surface spins varies substantially from contact to contact and sometimes
from sweep to sweep, which suggests that the surface coercivity can change
under very high current densities and/or due to the particular microstructure
of the point contact. In contrast, no changes in the effect of the exchange
biasing on the interior spins are observed at high currents, possibly due to
the rapid drop in the current density away from nanometer sized point contact
cores.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figs, presented on 11th Joint MMM-Intermag Conference,
Jan. 18-22, 2010, Washington, US
Anatomy of point-contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy from the experimental point of view (review)
We review application of point-contact Andreev-reflection spectroscopy to
study elemental superconductors, where theoretical conditions for the smallness
of the point-contact size with respect to the characteristic lengths in the
superconductor can be satisfied. We discuss existing theoretical models and
identify new issues that have to be solved, especially when applying this
method to investigate more complex superconductors. We will also demonstrate
that some aspects of point-contact Andreev-reflection spectroscopy still need
to be addressed even when investigating ordinary metals.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figs. V2: Ref.60 and footnote 3 are added, a number of
minor fixe
Competition of multiband superconducting and magnetic order in ErNi2B2C observed by Andreev reflection
Point contacts (PC) Andreev reflection dV/dI spectra for the
antiferromagnetic (T_N =6K) superconductor (Tc=11K) ErNi2B2C have been measured
for the two main crystallographic directions. Observed retention of the Andreev
reflection minima in dV/dI up to Tc directly points to unusual superconducting
order parameter (OP) vanishing at Tc. Temperature dependence of OP was obtained
from dV/dI using recent theory of Andreev reflection including pair-breaking
effect. For the first time existence of a two superconducting OPs in ErNi2B2C
is shown. A distinct decrease of both OPs as temperature is lowered below T_N
is observed.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figs, to be published in Europhys. Let
Point-contact study of the LuNi2B2C borocarbide superconducting film
We present point-contact (PC) Andreev-reflection measurements of a
superconducting epitaxial c-axis oriented nickel borocarbide film LuNi2B2C
(Tc=15.9 K). The averaged value of the superconducting gap is found to be 2.6
+/-0.2 meV in the one-gap approach, whereas the two-gap approach results in
2.14+/-0.36 meV and 3.0+/-0.27 meV. The better fit of the Andreev-reflection
spectra for the LuNi2B2C - Cu PC obtained by the two-gap approach provides
evidence for multiband superconductivity in LuNi2B2C. For the first time, PC
electron-phonon interaction (EPI) spectra have been measured for this compound.
They demonstrate pronounced phonon maximum at 8.5+/-0.4meV and a second shallow
one at 15.8+/-0.6 meV. The electron-phonon coupling constant estimated from the
PC EPI spectra turned out to be small (~ 0.1), like in other superconducting
rare-earth nickel borocarbides. Possible reasons for this are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, V2: figs. 2 & 5 captions are corrected, and new
Refs. 4, 6, 12, 13, 14 are adde
Electron-phonon interaction in transition metal diborides TB_2 (T=Zr, Nb, Ta) studied by point-contact spectroscopy
The electron-phonon interaction (EPI) in transition metal diborides TB_2
(T=Zr, Nb, Ta) is investigated by point-contact (PC) spectroscopy. The PC EPI
functions were recovered and the EPI parameters lambda<0.1 were estimated for
all three compounds. Common and distinctive features between the EPI functions
for those diborides are discussed also in connection with the superconductivity
in MgB_2.Comment: V2: minor changes, Ref.[21] added, publ. in PR
Advances in point-contact spectroscopy: two-band superconductor MgB2 (A review)
Analysis of the point-contact spectroscopy (PCS) data on the new dramatic
high-T superconductor MgB reveals quite different behavior of two
disconnected and electronic bands, deriving from their
anisotropy, different dimensionality, and electron-phonon interaction. PCS
allows direct registration of both the superconducting gaps and
electron-phonon-interaction spectral function of the two-dimensional
and three-dimensional band, establishing correlation between the gap
value and intensity of the high-T driving force -- the boron
vibration mode. PCS data on some nonsuperconducting transition-metal diborides
are surveyed for comparison.Comment: 17 pages, 30 figs., will be published in Low Temp. Phys. V.30 (2004)
N
Distribution of the superconducting gap in an YNi2B2C film studied by point contact spectroscopy
The differential resistances of point contacts between a
normal metal and a c axis oriented YNi2B2C film ( = 15.2K) in the
superconducting (SC) state have been investigated. contains clear
"gap" features connected with processes of Andreev reflection at the boundary
between normal metal and superconductor that allow the determination of the SC
gap and its temperature and magnetic field dependence. A distribution
of from 1.5 meV to 2.4 meV is
revealed; however the critical temperature in all cases corresponded to
that of the film. The value 23.66 is close to the BCS
value of 3.52, and the temperature dependence is BCS-like,
irrespective of the actual value. It is supposed that the distribution
of can be attributed to a gap anisotropy or to a multiband nature of
the SC state in YNi2B2C, rather than to the presence of nodes in the gap.Comment: 6 two-column pages, 7 figs; V2: as published, Fig.4 is modifie
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