Spin-valve magnetic sandwich in a Josephson junction

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Published 14 July 2005 2005 EDP Sciences
, , Citation A. Vedyayev et al 2005 EPL 71 679 DOI 10.1209/epl/i2005-10118-y

0295-5075/71/4/679

Abstract

The Josephson current is calculated in a SFNFS junction, which consists of two ferromagnetic layers (F) separated by a thin non-magnetic spacer (N) and connected to superconducting electrodes (S). Gorkov equations are solved taking into account the fact that s-d scattering is the main scattering mechanism in the 3d ferromagnetic metals and it effectively destroys BCS correlation. It allows us to consider both strong and weak exchange field I: Iτf >> 1 or Iτf << 1 (τf is the relaxation time in F-layers). It is shown that the critical current J oscillates as a function of F-layers thickness and the oscillation period depends only on I. The s-d scattering effectively acts as an additional to the exchange magnetic-field mechanism for the suppression of BCS correlation in the ferromagnet. The s-d scattering is shown to be the reason of suppression of the Josephson current enhancement in the antiparallel configuration.

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10.1209/epl/i2005-10118-y