Large Superconducting Spin Valve Effect and Ultrasmall Exchange Splitting in Epitaxial Rare-Earth-Niobium Trilayers

Epitaxial Ho/Nb/Ho and Dy/Nb/Dy superconducting spin valves show a reversible change in the zero-field critical temperature (ΔT(c0)) of ∼400  mK and an infinite magnetoresistance on changing the relative magnetization of the Ho or Dy layers. Unlike transition-metal superconducting spin valves, which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 115; no. 6; p. 067201
Main Authors Gu, Yuanzhou, Halász, Gábor B, Robinson, J W A, Blamire, M G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 07.08.2015
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Summary:Epitaxial Ho/Nb/Ho and Dy/Nb/Dy superconducting spin valves show a reversible change in the zero-field critical temperature (ΔT(c0)) of ∼400  mK and an infinite magnetoresistance on changing the relative magnetization of the Ho or Dy layers. Unlike transition-metal superconducting spin valves, which show much smaller ΔT(c0) values, our results can be quantitatively modeled. However, the fits require an extraordinarily low induced exchange splitting which is dramatically lower than known values for rare-earth Fermi-level electrons, implying that new models for the magnetic proximity effect may be required.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.067201