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Nanostructured superconductor/ferromagnet bilayers

M. Lange, M. J. Van Bael, L. Van Look, S. Raedts, V. V. Moshchalkov, Y. Bruynseraede

cond-mat.supr-conarXiv:cond-mat/0201302

Abstract

The pinning properties of type-II superconductors can be efficiently controlled by using laterally nanostructured ferromagnet / superconductor bilayers. This will be illustrated by studying the flux pinning in thin superconducting Pb films which are deposited on top of two types of magnetic nanostructures with out-of-plane magnetisation: (i) an array of dots, and (ii) an array of antidots, both made from a Co/Pt multilayer. The magnetisation curves of the Pb film are extremely asymmetric with respect to the polarity of the magnetic field when the magnetic moments in the Co/Pt multilayer were aligned prior to measurement. This asymmetry proves that magnetic contributions dominate the pinning potential that the magnetic nanostructures induce in the superconductor.

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