https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050203
Proximity effect in Fe/Pb/Fe trilayers
1
Kazan Physicotechnical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences,
420029 Kazan, Russian Federation
2
Institut für
Experimentalphysik/Festkörperphysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum,
44780 Bochum, Germany
3
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik Komplexer Systeme,
01187 Dresden, Germany
Corresponding author: a muehge@spin.ep4.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Received:
30
June
1997
Revised:
20
August
1997
Accepted:
16
December
1997
Published online: 15 February 1998
We have studied superconducting and magnetic properties of sputtered Fe/Pb/Fe-trilayers. For a fixed Pb thickness dPb and with changing Fe thickness, dFe, a monotonic decrease of the superconducting transition temperature Tc was observed. Magnetization measurements clearly showed that Fe remains ferromagnetic down to the monolayer range. A quantitative comparison of Tc(dFe) with the theory of pair breaking by the exchange field reveals that the observed Tc-suppression by the ferromagnetic Fe-layer is much weaker than expected. Possible reasons for the reduced Tc-suppression in this system are discussed.
PACS: 74.80.Dm – Superconducting layer structures: superlattices, heterojunctions, and multilayers / 74.50.+r – Proximity effects, weak links, tunneling phenomena, and Josephson effects / 74.62.-c – Transition temperature variations
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998
