172 research outputs found
Kinetic inductance measured in a superconducting wire
Ultrasensitive technique to measure kinetic inductance has test specimen included as part of the inductance of a tank circuit of a tunnel diode oscillator. Frequency counter measures shift in frequency of oscillator, caused by changes in inductance. Frequency shift in tank circuit is proportional to change in kinetic inductanc
Detection of tightly closed flaws by nondestructive testing (NDT) methods in steel and titanium
X-radiographic, liquid penetrant, ultrasonic, eddy current and magnetic particle testing techniques were optimized and applied to the evaluation of 4340 steel (180 KSI-UTS) and 6Al-4V titanium (STA) alloy specimens. Sixty steel specimens containing a total of 176 fatigue cracks and 60 titanium specimens containing a total of 135 fatigue cracks were evaluated. The cracks ranged in length from .043 cm (0.017 inch) to 1.02 cm (.400 inch) and in depth from .005 cm (.002 inch) to .239 cm (.094 inch) for steel specimens. Lengths ranged from .048 cm (0.019 inch) to 1.03 cm (.407 inch) and depths from 0.010 cm (.004 inch) to .261 cm (0.103 inch) for titanium specimens. Specimen thicknesses were nominally .152 cm (0.060 inch) and 0.635 cm (0.250 inch) and surface finishes were nominally 125 rms. Specimens were evaluated in the "as machined" surface condition, after etch surface and after proof loading in a randomized inspection sequence
Spin accumulation induced resistance in mesoscopic ferromagnet/ superconductor junctions
We present a description of spin-polarized transport in mesoscopic
ferromagnet-superconductor (F/S) systems, where the transport is diffusive, and
the interfaces are transparent. It is shown that the spin reversal associated
with Andreev reflection generates an excess spin density close to the F/S
interface, which leads to a spin contact resistance. Expressions for the
contact resistance are given for two terminal and four terminal geometries. In
the latter the sign depends on the relative magnetization of the ferromagnetic
electrodes.Comment: RevTeX 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev. Let
Spin current in ferromagnet/insulator/superconductor junctions
A theory of spin polarized tunneling spectroscopy based on a scattering
theory is given for tunneling junctions between ferromagnets and d-wave
superconductors. The spin filtering effect of an exchange field in the
insulator is also treated. We clarify that the properties of the Andreev
reflection are largely modified due to a presence of an exchange field in the
ferromagnets, and consequently the Andreev reflected quasiparticle shows an
evanescent-wave behavior depending on the injection angle of the quasiparticle.
Conductance formulas for the spin current as well as the charge current are
given as a function of the applied voltage and the spin-polarization in the
ferromagnet for arbitrary barrier heights. It is shown that the surface bound
states do not contribute to the spin current and that the zero-bias conductance
peak expected for a d-wave superconductor splits into two peaks under the
influence of the exchange interaction in the insulator.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
Self Injection length in La0.7 Ca0.3 Mno3-YBa 2Cu3O7-d ferromagnet- superconductor multi layer thin films
We have carried out extensive studies on the self-injection problem in
barrierless heterojunctions between La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) and YBa2Cu3O7-d
(YBCO). The heterojunctions were grown in situ by sequentially growing LCMO and
YBCO films on LaAlO3 (LAO) substrate using a pulsed laser deposition
(PLD) system. YBCO micro-bridges with 64 microns width were patterned both on
the LAO (control) and LCMO side of the substrate. Critical current, Ic, was
measured at 77K on both the control side as well as the LCMO side for different
YBCO film thickness. It was observed that while the control side showed a Jc of
~2 x 10E6 A/ cm2 the LCMO side showed about half the value for the same
thickness (1800 A). The difference in Jc indicates that a certain thickness of
YBCO has become 'effectively' normal due to self-injection. From the
measurement of Jc at two different thickness' (1800 A and 1500 A) of YBCO both
on the LAO as well as the LCMO side, the value of self-injection length (at
77K) was estimated to be ~900 A self-injection length has been quantified. A
control experiment carried out with LaNiO3 deposited by PLD on YBCO did not
show any evidence of self-injection.Comment: 6 pages, one figure in .ps forma
Anisotropic Magnetoconductance in Quench-Condensed Ultrathin Beryllium Films
Near the superconductor-insulator (S-I) transition, quench-condensed
ultrathin Be films show a large magnetoconductance which is highly anisotropic
in the direction of the applied field. Film conductance can drop as much as
seven orders of magnitude in a weak perpendicular field (< 1 T), but is
insensitive to a parallel field in the same field range. We believe that this
negative magnetoconductance is due to the field de-phasing of the
superconducting pair wavefunction. This idea enables us to extract the finite
superconducting phase coherence length in nearly superconducting films. Our
data indicate that this local phase coherence persists even in highly
insulating films in the vicinity of the S-I transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure RevTex, Typos Correcte
Electric-field controlled spin reversal in a quantum dot with ferromagnetic contacts
Manipulation of the spin-states of a quantum dot by purely electrical means
is a highly desirable property of fundamental importance for the development of
spintronic devices such as spin-filters, spin-transistors and single-spin
memory as well as for solid-state qubits. An electrically gated quantum dot in
the Coulomb blockade regime can be tuned to hold a single unpaired spin-1/2,
which is routinely spin-polarized by an applied magnetic field. Using
ferromagnetic electrodes, however, the properties of the quantum dot become
directly spin-dependent and it has been demonstrated that the ferromagnetic
electrodes induce a local exchange-field which polarizes the localized spin in
the absence of any external fields. Here we report on the experimental
realization of this tunneling-induced spin-splitting in a carbon nanotube
quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic nickel-electrodes. We study the
intermediate coupling regime in which single-electron states remain well
defined, but with sufficiently good tunnel-contacts to give rise to a sizable
exchange-field. Since charge transport in this regime is dominated by the
Kondo-effect, we can utilize this sharp many-body resonance to read off the
local spin-polarization from the measured bias-spectroscopy. We show that the
exchange-field can be compensated by an external magnetic field, thus restoring
a zero-bias Kondo-resonance, and we demonstrate that the exchange-field itself,
and hence the local spin-polarization, can be tuned and reversed merely by
tuning the gate-voltage. This demonstrates a very direct electrical control
over the spin-state of a quantum dot which, in contrast to an applied magnetic
field, allows for rapid spin-reversal with a very localized addressing.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure
Boltzmann Equations for Spin and Charge Relaxations in Superconductors
In a superconductor coupled with a ferromagnetic metal, spin and charge
imbalances can be induced by injecting spin-polarized electron current from the
ferromagnetic metal. We theoretically study a nonequilibrium distribution of
quasiparticles in the presence of spin and charge imbalances. We show that four
distribution functions are needed to characterize such a nonequilibrium
situation, and derive a set of linearized Boltzmann equations for them by
extending the argument by Schmid and Sch\"{o}n based on the quasiclassical
Green's function method. Using the Boltzmann equations, we analyze the spin
imbalance in a thin superconducting wire weakly coupled with a ferromagnetic
electrode. The spin imbalance induces a shift () of
the chemical potential for up-spin (down-spin) quasiparticles. We discuss how
is relaxed by spin-orbit impurity scattering.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Tenfold Magnetoconductance in a Non-Magnetic Metal Film
We present magnetoconductance (MC) measurements of homogeneously disordered
Be films whose zero field sheet conductance (G) is described by the
Efros-Shklovskii hopping law . The low field
MC of the films is negative with G decreasing 200% below 1 T. In contrast the
MC above 1 T is strongly positive. At 8 T, G increases 1000% in perpendicular
field and 500% in parallel field. In the simpler parallel case, we observe {\em
field enhanced} variable range hopping characterized by an attenuation of
via the Zeeman interaction.Comment: 9 pages including 5 figure
Electron and hole transmission through superconductor - normal metal interfaces
We have investigated the transmission of electrons and holes through
interfaces between superconducting aluminum (Tc = 1.2 K) and various normal
non-magnetic metals (copper, gold, palladium, platinum, and silver) using
Andreev-reflection spectroscopy at T = 0.1 K. We analyzed the point contacts
with the modified BTK theory that includes Dynes' lifetime as a fitting
parameter G in addition to superconducting energy gap 2D and normal reflection
described by Z. For contact areas from 1 nm^2 to 10000 nm^2 the BTK Z parameter
was 0.5, corresponding to transmission coefficients of about 80 %, independent
of the normal metal. The very small variation of Z indicates that the
interfaces have a negligible dielectric tunneling barrier. Fermi surface
mismatch does not account for the observed transmission coefficient.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Proceedings of the 19th
International Conference on Magnetism ICM2012 (Busan 2012
- …