Quasi-one-dimensional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-like state in Nb/Cu0.41Ni0.59 bilayers

In a ferromagnet (F) being in contact with a superconductor (S) an unconventional finite-momentum pairing of electrons forming Cooper pairs occurs. As a consequence, interference effects of the pairing wave function, leading to an oscillation of the critical temperature for increasing F-layer thickness in S/F bilayers, including extinction and recovery of the superconducting state, were predicted by theory. We observed experimentally all types of this behavior, calculated theoretically, in Nb/Cu_{1 ? x} Ni _x bilayers (x = 0.59) of nanometer film thickness, prepared by magnetron sputtering (utilizing a moving magnetron deposition technique to provide a superb homogeneity of the ultrathin Nb layers), including a double extinction of superconductivity, giving evidence for a multiple reentrant state.     

Coupled perpendicular magnetization in Fe/Cu/Fe trilayers

Ultrathin epitaxial Fe films on Cu(1 0 0) with perpendicular magnetization have been used as templates for the preparation of FCC Fe/Cu/Fe trilayers. The magnetic anisotropy and the coupling of these films have been studied by in-situ magneto optical Kerr effect measurements and Kerr microscopy. The magnetic coupling of both Fe layers is found to be dominated by magnetostatic interaction. Adsorbate-induced spin reorientation in the top layer also causes spin reorientation in the bottom layer. The governing role of the Fe-vacuum interface for the magnetism of the whole trilayer is demonstrated.     

Production of high quality Nb/Al-oxide/Nb SIS trilayers for submillimeter wave mixers

Owing to a very sharp nonlinearity in the quasiparticle currentvoltage characteristic, which fortuitously occurs on the scale of a few millivolts rather than a few volts as with semiconductor devices, superconductor/insulator/superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions are the most sensitive detectors for heterodyne mixing at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. They can also provide sources of coherent local oscillator power at very high frequencies; more broadly, they have a number of interesting applications as fast, low-power logic elements and as detectors at optical wavelengths. For submillimeterwave mixers, in many ways the most demanding of these applications, the Nb/Al-oxide/Nb material system has emerged as the system of choice to frequencies of ∼ 700 GHz and beyond. Production of SIS devices requires careful attention to a number of critical microfabrication issues, and I describe here some of the insights gained from developing a process for high-quality niobium trilayers that successfully yielded small-area junctions with unusually low sub-gap leakage current.     

Soft phonons and structural phase transition in superconducting Ba0.59K0.41BiO3

We have observed a softening of phonons and a structural phase transition in a superconducting Ba_0.59K_0.41BiO₃ (T_c = 31 K) single crystal using elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements. The soft phonon occurs for the [1 1 1] transverse acoustic mode at the zone boundary. The phonon energies in this vicinity are found to continuously decrease with decreasing temperature from above room temperature. This softening stops at a temperature close to T_s, where a structural phase transition from cubic to tetragonal symmetry occurs. The overall results are consistent with previous data that reported phonon softening and a (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) type superstructure in several Ba_1?xK_xBiO₃ systems. However, we also find weaker (0.5, 0.5, 0) type superstructure peaks that reveal an additional component to the modulation. No significant change related to the superconductivity was observed for these soft phonon energies or linewidths.     

Magnetization modification by superconductivity in Nb/Ni80Fe20/Nb trilayers

We present experimental evidences for magnetization modification by superconductivity in a series of Nb/Ni₈₀Fe₂₀/Nb trilayers. By monitoring the magnetization in a zero field as a function of temperature, we observed an irreversibility in magnetization between the cooling and warming branches just above the superconducting transition temperature T_c. These results suggest that the magnetization of the ferromagnetic Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ layer is reduced by the mutual interactions between the ferromagnet and superconductor. Moreover, this effect diminishes with increasing thickness of the Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ layer, which indicates that the interaction between the superconducting and magnetic layers occurs mainly at the vicinity of the interfaces.     

Perpendicular interlayer coupling in Ni80Fe20/NiO/Co trilayers

An in-plane perpendicular magnetic coupling between Ni80Fe20 and Co has been found in NiFe/NiO/Co trilayers for a NiO thickness ranging from 4 to 25 nm by magneto-optical Kerr effect and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements. In the easy magnetization direction of the Co layer, the Co coercive field H(C) increases when the thickness of the NiO layer t(NiO) increases. Because of the coupling, H(C) is always larger than for NiO/Co bilayers with the same thicknesses. The saturation field of the NiFe layer H(S) decreases when t(NiO) increases, indicating a weakening of the coupling. Numerical simulations show that the presence of interface roughness combined with a small value of the NiO anisotropy can explain the observed 90 degrees coupling.     

An investigation of quasimolecularKX-radiation emitted in Nb+Nb and Ni+Ni collisions

Natural Nb targets were bombarded with 67 MeV and 96 MeV Nb ions, and natural Ni targets with 67 MeV Ni ions. Continuous quasimolecularKX-ray spectra have been obtained. The absolute yield and directional anisotropy of the quasimolecularKX-radiation have been derived. An attempt has been made to determine the endpoint energy of the measured continua.     

Superconductivity of Nb/Cu superlattices

The superconducting transition temperature T_c of Nb/Cu superlattices has been investigated as a function of layer thickness. The dependence of T_c above 300 Å layer thickness agrees well with proximity effect theory with no adjustable parameters. Below 300 Å, the data in conjunction with current proximity theory shows that T_c of Nb decreases with layer thickness. This is interpreted as changes in the electronic density of states due to a decrease in the mean-free path.     

Gamow-Teller transitions from 58Ni to discrete states of 58Cu

Under the assumption that isospin is a good quantum number, symmetry is expected for the transitions from the ground states of T = 1, T _z = ±1 nuclei to the common excited states of the T _z = 0 nucleus situated between the two nuclei. The symmetry can be studied by comparing the strengths of Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions obtained from a (p, n)-type charge-exchange reaction on a target nucleus with T _z = 1 with those from the β-decay of the T _z = - 1 nucleus. The A = 58 system is the heaviest for which such a comparison is possible. As a part of the symmetry study, we measured the GT transitions from ⁵⁸Ni (T _z = 1) to ⁵⁸Cu (T _z = 0) by using the zero-degree (³ He, t) reaction at 150 MeV/nucleon. With the achieved resolution of 50 keV, many hitherto unresolved GT states have been identified. The GT transition strengths were obtained for states up to 8 MeV excitation, i.e., near to the Q window limitation ( Q _EC = 9.37 MeV) of the β-decay from ⁵⁸Zn (T _z = - 1) to ⁵⁸Cu. The strength distribution is compared with that from shell-model calculations. Received: 24 November 2001 / Accepted: 30 January 2002     

Magnetic phase transition in Co/Cu/Ni/Cu(100) and Co/Fe/Ni/Cu(100)

Magnetic phase transitions in coupled magnetic sandwiches of Cu/Co/Cu/Ni/Cu(100) and Cu/Co/Fe/Ni/Cu(100) are investigated by photoemission electron microscopy. Element-specific magnetic domains are taken at room temperature to reveal the critical thickness at which the magnetic phase transition occurs. The results show that a coupled magnetic sandwich undergoes three types of magnetic phase transitions depending on the two ferromagnetic films' thickness. A phase diagram is constructed and explained in the process of constructing Monte Carlo simulations, which corroborate the experimental results.     

Enhancement of magnetoresistance sensitivity in Co/Cu/NiFe trilayers by softening the Co hard layer

Co/Cu/NiFe trilayers were prepared by sputtering without magnetic field applied. We have found that the Co(2 nm)Cu(1 nm)NiFe(2 nm) trilayer using Ta as buffer layer exhibits an enhanced magnetoresistance (MR) sensitivity by a factor of more than 6 and a low saturation field of 9.3 Oe. Experimental results have demonstrated that the low saturation field is attributed to the softening of the Co layer by depositing the Co(2 nm)Cu(1 nm)NiFe(2 nm) sandwich on Ta layer. The decrease of the coercivity of the Co layer also plays an important role in the enhancement of MR sensitivity by reducing the effective coercivity of the NiFe layer, which is discussed in terms of the change in interlayer coupling.     

Using the phase transitions in Ni and Cu nanoclusters for data recording processes

Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Physics - The possibility of using individual Cu and Ni nanoclusters as individual bits of information in memory devices constructed on the principle of...     

Reentrant superconductivity in Nb/Cu1-xNix bilayers

We report on the first observation of a pronounced reentrant superconductivity phenomenon in a superconductor/ferromagnet layered system. The results were obtained using a superconductor/ferromagnetic-alloy bilayer of Nb/Cu(1-x)Ni(x). The superconducting transition temperature T(c) drops sharply with increasing thickness dCuNi) of the ferromagnetic layer, until complete suppression of superconductivity is observed at d(CuNi) approximately equal to 4 nm. Increasing the Cu(1-x)Ni(x) layer thickness further, superconductivity reappears at d(CuNi) > or =13 nm. Our experiments give evidence for the pairing function oscillations associated with a realization of the quasi-one-dimensional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-like state in the ferromagnetic layer.     

Charge ordering and structural transitions in Pr0.5Sr0.41Ca0.09MnO3

The structural and magnetic transitions in Pr_0.5Sr_0.41Ca_0.09MnO₃ have been investigated by neutron diffraction and electron microscopy. Two structural transitions, Imma to I4/mcm and I4/mcm to Pmmn, are observed by decreasing the temperature. Two magnetic transitions, from a paramagnetic insulating to a ferromagnetic metallic and from a ferromagnetic metallic to an antiferromagnetic insulating states at T_C=250 K and T_N=180 K, respectively, are also observed. The structures of these three forms have been determined from neutron powder diffraction data. The first important result concerns the low temperature antiferromagnetic CE type and charge ordered structure, which has been refined in the Pmmn space group, without any constraint. This structure is completely long range ordered, with two Mn-sites, Mn³⁺ in tetragonally elongated octahedra, and Mn⁴⁺, off-centered in nearly regular octahedra. The second important point concerns the abrupt character of the structural transition from the I4/mcm to the Pmmn structure, without any appearance of incommensurability. The magnetic and transport properties of this compound are compared with those of Pr_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃.     

Derivative transmission measurements of the temperature dependance of the Γ-Γ transition in the Ga0.73In0.27As0.59P0.41 compound

Derivative transmission measurements have been carried out on the LPE grown Ga_0.73In_0.27As_0.59P_0.41 quaternary alloy between 77 and 300 K. The resulting temperature dependence of the fundamental Γ-Γ transition is in accordance with the currently admitted behaviour in semi-conductors.     

Magnetic and magnetoresistive properties of epitaxial Co/Cu/Co trilayers on Si(111)

Giant magnetoresistance of the epitaxial Co/Cu/Co trilayers grown on vicinal Si(111) was determined as a function of Cu spacer coverage in the range from 0 to 7 ML. The first maximum of giant magnetoresistance and antiferromagnetic coupling was detected at 3.0 ML coverage of the Cu spacer. The portion of antiferromagnetic coupling in the first antiferromagnetic maximum was estimated as 17%. 3D growth mode of the Cu spacer leads to the simultaneous occurrence of the ferromagnetically and antiferromagnetically coupled areas between the Co layers.