2 research outputs found
Phase diagram of a superconductor / ferromagnet bilayer
The magnetic field (H) - temperature (T) phase diagram of a superconductor is
significantly altered when domains are present in an underlying ferromagnet
with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. When the domains have a band-like
shape, the critical temperature Tc of the superconductor in zero field is
strongly reduced, and the slope of the upper critical field as a function of T
is increased by a factor of 2.4 due to the inhomogeneous stray fields of the
domains. Field compensation effects can cause an asymmetric phase boundary with
respect to H when the ferromagnet contains bubble domains. For a very
inhomogeneous domain structure, Tc~H^2 for low H and Tc~H for higher fields,
indicating a dimensional crossover from a one-dimensional network-like to a
two-dimensional behavior in the nucleation of superconductivity.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure