Magnon-assisted Andreev reflection in a ferromagnet-superconductor junction

Abstract

We study subgap transport in a ferromagnet-superconductor junction at low temperature due to Andreev reflection. The mismatch of spin polarized current in the ferromagnet and spinless current in the superconductor results in an additional contact resistance which can be reduced by magnon emission in the ferromagnet. Using the s-f model and focusing on half-metallic ferromagnets, we calculate the corresponding nonlinear contribution to the current which is asymmetric with respect to the sign of the bias voltage and is related to the density of states of magnons in the ferromagnet.