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Spin-dependent Transparency of Ferromagnet/Superconductor Interfaces

K. Xia, P. J. Kelly, G. E. W. Bauer, I. Turek

cond-mat.mtrl-sciarXiv:cond-mat/0202515

Abstract

Because the physical interpretation of the spin-polarization of a ferromagnet determined by point-contact Andreev reflection (PCAR) is non-trivial, we have carried out parameter-free calculations of PCAR spectra based upon a scattering-theory formulation of Andreev reflection generalized to spin-polarized systems and a tight-binding linear muffin tin orbital method for calculating the corresponding scattering matrices. PCAR is found to measure the spin-dependent interface transparency rather than the bulk polarization of the ferromagnet which is strongly overestimated by free electron model fitting.

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