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Spin-Polarized Transport in F/S Nanojunctions

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Abstract

We study spin-dependent electronic transport across ferromagnet/superconductor ballistic junctions modeled using tight-binding Hamiltonians with s, p and d orbitals and material-specific parameters. The first result of this paper is that, by accurately modeling the band structure of the bulk materials, one can reproduce the measured differential conductance of Cu/Pb nanocontacts1,2. In contrast the differential conductance of CO/Pb contacts can only be reproduced if an enhanced magnetic moment is present at the interface. The second result concerns the reliability of a method proposed in Refs. 1–3 for determining the degree of polarization of a ferromagnet. By fitting the material-specific differential conductance curves to curves calculated using a single-band model we show that this method does not yield reliable values for polarization and spin-dependent transmission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Chemistry, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, UK

    F. Taddei

  2. Dipartimento di Metodologie Fisiche e Chimiche (DMFCI), Università di Catania, Viale A. Doria, 6, I-95125, Catania, Italy

    F. Taddei

  3. Institute for Scientific Interchange (ISI) Foundation, Viale Settimio Severo, 65, I-10133, Torino, Italy

    F. Taddei & C. J. Lambert

  4. Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    S. Sanvito

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  1. F. Taddei
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  3. C. J. Lambert
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Taddei, F., Sanvito, S. & Lambert, C.J. Spin-Polarized Transport in F/S Nanojunctions. Journal of Low Temperature Physics 124, 305–320 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017546406402

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