Charge and spin transport in mesoscopic superconductors

• M. J. Wolf,
• F. Hübler,
• S. Kolenda and
• D. Beckmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 180–185, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.18

• and 1980s, mostly in the vicinity of the critical temperature. Much less attention has been paid to low temperatures and the role of the quasiparticle spin. Results: We report here on nonlocal transport in superconductor hybrid structures at very low temperatures. By comparing the nonlocal conductance

• models. Conclusion: The observed long-range chargeless spin transport opens a new path to manipulate and utilize the quasiparticle spin in superconductor nanostructures. Keywords: spintronics; superconductor–ferromagnet hybrids; Introduction The investigation of spin-polarized transport in hybrid

• superconductor. By fitting gnl at a given bias voltage for different contact distances to an exponential decay, we can obtain a bias-dependent charge relaxation length (see [12] for details). The corresponding results are shown in Figure 2b. Since we are interested here mostly in the behavior at finite magnetic

P-wave Cooper pair splitting

• Henning Soller and
• Andreas Komnik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 493–500, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.56

• spin-active interfaces in Cooper pair splitters so far have not been investigated. Results: We analyze the current and the cross correlation of currents in a superconductor–ferromagnet beam splitter, including spin-active scattering. Using the Hamiltonian formalism, we calculate the cumulant-generating

• function of charge transfer. As a first step, we discuss characteristics of the conductance for crossed Andreev reflection in superconductor–ferromagnet beam splitters with s-wave and p-wave superconductors and no spin-active scattering. In a second step, we consider spin-active scattering and show how to

• realize p-wave splitting using only an s-wave superconductor, through the process of spin-flipped crossed Andreev reflection. We present results for the conductance and cross correlations. Conclusion: Spin-activity of interfaces in Cooper pair splitters allows for new features in ordinary s-wave Cooper

Enhancement of the critical current density in FeO-coated MgB₂ thin films at high magnetic fields

• Andrei E. Surdu,
• Hussein H. Hamdeh,
• Imad A. Al-Omari,
• David J. Sellmyer,
• Alexei V. Socrovisciuc,
• Andrei A. Prepelita,
• Ezgi T. Koparan,
• Ekrem Yanmaz,
• Valery V. Ryazanov,
• Horst Hahn and
• Anatolie S. Sidorenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 809–813, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.89

• material, with a hexagonal crystal structure and a critical temperature of Tc = 39 K, raised a lot of questions about its transport properties. This strong type-II superconductor has a fairly high critical current density in zero magnetic field, i.e., up to Jc ~ 1.6 × 107 A/cm2 at 15 K [2]. This

• a dramatic loss of the current-carrying abilities of this superconductor due to the weakening of the flux-line pinning with increasing magnetic field. The problem to be solved is how to increase the pinning force and to overcome the dramatic dropdown of the critical current in a strong external

Scanning probe microscopy and related methods

• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 155–157, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.18

• gives insight into fascinating phenomena, such as metal-superconductor transitions or metal-insulator transitions. Another important development is related to nanomechanics, where phenomena, such as friction, wear, elasticity and plasticity are studied on an atomic scale. Atomic friction has been