Thesis presented November 06, 2013

Abstract:
While ferromagnetism and conventional superconductivity appear as antagonist phases of nature, the proximity effect in hybrid S/F structures offers a unique opportunity to study their interplay. In particular, spin-triplet odd-frequency superconducting correlations may be induced in a diffusive ferromagnet. In a first part, we study the equilibrium current that may flow in hybrid S/F Josephson junctions. We exhibit signatures of odd-frequency triplet correlations. In particular, we predict the existence of a long range triplet current through a non-collinear bilayer ferromagnet with a peculiar super harmonic current phase relation. This can be viewed as the Josephson effect between a conventional superconductor and an effective triplet superconductor generated at the end of the bilayer ferromagnet. Then, we study the competition between triplet and singlet superconductivity in the temperature dependence of the critical current. Namely, the critical current flowing between two effective triplet reservoirs through a conventional superconducting layer may display a maximum at finite temperature.

Keywords:
Electronic transport, Dynamic, Ferrromagnetism, Superconductivity, Spatial oscillation, Correlation

On-line thesis.