Origin of the inverse spin switch effect in superconducting spin valves

J Zhu; X Cheng; C Boone; I N Krivorotov

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.027004

Origin of the inverse spin switch effect in superconducting spin valves

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jul 10;103(2):027004. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.027004. Epub 2009 Jul 9.

Authors

J Zhu¹, X Cheng, C Boone, I N Krivorotov

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-4575, USA.

PMID: 19659237
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.027004

Abstract

Known as the spin switch effect (SSE), the resistance of a ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet (F/S/F) spin valve near its superconducting transition temperature T c is different for parallel (R P) and antiparallel (R AP) configurations of the F layers. Here, we report the observation of the coexistence of the standard (RP>RAP) and inverse (RP<RAP) SSE in Ni81Fe19/Nb/Ni81Fe19/Ir25Mn75 spin valves. Our measurements reveal that the inverse SSE arises from a dissipative flow of vortices induced by stray magnetic fields from Néel domain-wall pairs in the F layers.