Comunicazione
Charge and spin transport in ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet heterostructures.
Lo Schiavo M., Gentile P., Romano A., Noce C.
We study charge and spin transport in ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet junctions. The analysis has been carried out by considering an appropriate generalization of the approach originally introduced by Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk for superconductor-normal metal junctions, comparing the effect of different itinerant ferromagnetism mechanisms in the two magnetic leads of the junction. Specifically, we focus on a heterostructure where an antiparallel magnetization is applied between the two ferromagnets. We analyze the scattering processes at the interfaces both for Stoner-like ferromagnets and for spin-bandwidth asymmetry ferromagnets. Then we investigate the conductance and magnetoresistance of this junction and highlight important differences in the behavior of these quantities for the above-mentioned ferromagnets. We finally comment on the possible spin valve effects generated within the junction focusing on the effects of the different itinerant ferromagnets.