Soft magnetic lithography and giant magnetoresistance in superconducting/ferromagnetic hybrids.
We demonstrate an approach to create a tunable pinning potential in a superconducting/ferromagnetic (SC/FM) hybrid, allowing the switching of their electronic properties through the application of a small magnetic field. Using direct magneto-optical imaging, macroscopic transport, and magnetic measurements, we show that the alignment of stripe domains in the ferromagnet provides a remarkable directionality for the superconducting vortex motion. An analysis of the anisotropic flux motion demonstrates a substantial critical current anisotropy in the superconductor. The possibility of aligning stable lattices of stripe domains in select directions using in-plane magnetic fields allows the realization of soft magnetic lithography for efficient manipulation of supercurrent flow in SC/FM bilayers. Furthermore, in our samples we observed a pronounced magnetoresistance effect yielding 4 orders of magnitude resistivity change in a few millitesla in-plane field.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 947543
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/MSD/JA-62738; TRN: US200905%%11
- Journal Information:
- Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 78, Issue 2008; ISSN 1098-0121
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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