The Route to Supercurrent Transparent Ferromagnetic Barriers in Superconducting Matrix.

Ivanov, Yurii P; Soltan, Soltan; Albrecht, Joachim; Goering, Eberhard; Schütz, Gisela; Zhang, Zaoli; Chuvilin, Andrey · ACS Nano · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

A ferromagnetic barrier thinner than the coherence length in high-temperature superconductors is realized in the multilayers of YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>7-δ</sub> and La<sub>0.67</sub>Ca<sub>0.33</sub>MnO<sub>3</sub>. We used epitaxial growth of YBCO on ⟨110⟩ SrTiO<sub>3</sub> substrates by pulsed laser deposition to prepare thin superconducting films with copper oxide planes oriented at an angle to the substrate surface. Subsequent deposition of LCMO and finally a second YBCO layer produces a superconductor/ferromagnet/superconductor trilayer containing an ultrathin ferromagnetic barrier with sophisticated geometry at which the long axis of coherence length ovoid of YBCO is pointing across the LCMO ferromagnetic layer. A detailed characterization of this structure is achieved using high-resolution electron microscopy.