CuNi/Nb S-F hybrid heterostructures for investigation of induced magnetization in superconducting layer

Abstract

The mutual influence of the magnetism and superconductivity in superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) nanofabricated thin films hybrid heterostructures has been an exciting topic in solid-state physics during last decade (see, e.g. review [1]). However, the interesting theoretical predictions still wait for unambiguous experimental verification. One of such effect is the so-called spin screening (often called inverse proximity effect), which designates a spin polarization in the superconducting layer close to the S/F interface. It is theoretically shown [2, 3] that a spin polarization develops in the S layer with direction opposite to the spin polarization of the conduction electrons in the F layer. If the thicknesses of the ferromagnetic and superconducting layers are small compared to the London penetration length, then the orbital effect, caused by Meissner screening currents of superconductor will be small compared to the spin effect due to spin polarization. The thickness of the spin polarized sub-layer is comparable to the coherence length ξ of the superconductor. Therefore an advanced technology should be used for fabrication of S/F nanostructures with thin superconducting layers