Oscillations of the superconducting order parameter in a ferromagnet

Abstract

Planar tunneling spectroscopy reveals damped oscillations of the superconducting order parameter induced into a ferromagnetic thin film by the proximity effect. The oscillations are due to the finite momentum transfer provided to Cooper pairs by the splitting of the spin up and down bands in the ferromagnet. As a consequence, for negative values of the superconducting order parameter the tunneling spectra are capsized ("$π$-state"). The oscillations' damping and period are set by the same length scale, which depends on the spin polarization.