H_c_3 for a thin-film superconductor with a ferromagnetic dot

Abstract

We investigate the effect of a ferromagnetic dot on a thin-film superconductor. We use a real-space method to solve the linearized Ginzburg-Landau equation in order to find the upper critical field, H_c_3. We show that H_c_3 is crucially dependent on dot composition and geometry, and may be significantly greater than H_c_2. H_c_3 is maximally enhanced when (1) the dot saturation magnetization is large, (2) the ratio of dot thickness to dot diameter is of order one, and (3) the dot thickness is large