Spin-orbit driven superconducting proximity effects in Pt/Nb thin films

Abstract

Manipulating the spin state of thin layers of superconducting material is a promising route to generate dissipationless spin currents in spintronic devices. Approaches typically focus on using thin ferromagnetic elements to perturb the spin state of the superconducting condensate to create spin-triplet correlations. We have investigated simple structures that generate spin-triplet correlations without using ferromagnetic elements. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy and muon-spin rotation are used to probe the local electronic and magnetic properties of our hybrid structures, demonstrating a paramagnetic contribution to the magnetization that partially cancels the Meissner screening. This spin-orbit generated magnetization is shown to derive from the spin of the equal-spin pairs rather than from their orbital motion and is an important development in the field of superconducting spintronics.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Flokstra, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4333-1358 Stewart, R. Yim, C.-M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3339-4571 Trainer, C. Wahl, P. Miller, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5563-6645 Satchell, N. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1597-2489 Burnell, G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9486-0639 Luetkens, H. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5842-9788 Prokscha, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7643-4695 Suter, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9214-6474 Morenzoni, E. Bobkova, I.V. Bobkov, A.M. Lee, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2020-3310
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2023 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	Spintronics; Superconducting properties and materials; Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
Dates:	Published: 21 August 2023 Published (online): 21 August 2023 Accepted: 7 August 2023
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Condensed Matter (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	09 Apr 2024 15:55
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2024 15:56
Published Version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40757-1
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41467-023-40757-1
Related URLs:	PubMed URL
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:206591

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Spin-orbit driven superconducting proximity effects in Pt/Nb thin films

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