Enhanced Triplet Pairing in Magnetic Junctions with s-wave Superconductors

ORAL

Abstract

A common path to Majorana fermions and topologically-protected quantum computing relies on spin-triplet superconductivity[1]. While spin-triplet pairing is elusive in nature and even common spin-triplet candidates, such as Sr2RuO4, could support alternative explanations[2], proximity effects in heterostructures can overcome these limitations. Specifically, a common expectation is that robust spin-triplet superconductivity in magnetic junctions should rely on highly spin-polarized magnets or complex magnetic multilayers[3]. Instead, we predict that the interplay of interfacial spin-orbit coupling and the barrier strength in simple magnetic junctions with s-wave superconductors can lead to nearly complete spin-triplet superconducting proximity effects when magnets have only a small spin polarization. We show that this enhanced spin-triplet regime is characterized by a huge increase in conductance magnetoanisotropy[4], orders of magnitude larger than in the normal state.

We thank P. Hoegl for valuable discussions.

[1] A. Y. Kitaev, Phys. Usp. 44, 131 (2001)
[2] I. Zutić, I. Mazin, PRL 95, 217004 (2005)
[3] M. Eschrig, Phys. Today 64, 43 (2011)
[4] P. Högl, A. Matos-Abiague, I. Zutić, J. Fabian, PRL 115, 116601(2015)

–

Presenters

  • Chenghao Shen

    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Authors

  • Chenghao Shen

    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

  • Thomas Vezin

    École Polytechnique

  • Jong E Han

    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Department of Physics, State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, Physics, State Univ of NY - Buffalo

  • Igor Zutic

    University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Department of Physics, State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, Physics, State Univ of NY - Buffalo, Physics, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Physics, State University of New York at Buffalo