Magnetic pinning in superconductor-ferromagnet multilayers

Journal Article · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.126419· OSTI ID:20216179

Bulaevskii, L N ^[1]; Chudnovsky, E M ^[2]; Maley, M P ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, CUNY Lehman College 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, New York 10468-1589 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, CUNY Lehman College, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, New York 10468-1589 (United States)
3. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

We argue that superconductor/ferromagnet multilayers of nanoscale period should exhibit strong pinning of vortices by the magnetic domain structure in magnetic fields below the coercive field when ferromagnetic layers exhibit strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The estimated maximum magnetic pinning energy for single vortex in such a system is about 100 times larger than the pinning energy by columnar defects. This pinning energy may provide critical currents as high as 10{sup 6}-10{sup 7} A/cm{sup 2} at high temperatures (but not very close to T{sub c}) at least in magnetic fields below 0.1 T. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.

• OSTI ID: 20216179
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 76, Issue 18; Other Information: PBD: 1 May 2000; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
SUPERCONDUCTING FILMS
FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS
MAGNETIC FLUX
VORTICES
CRITICAL CURRENT
HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTORS
COERCIVE FORCE
DOMAIN STRUCTURE
THEORETICAL DATA