Long-Range Proximity Effects in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Structures

Abstract

We analyze the proximity effect in a superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) structure with a local inhomogeneity of the magnetization in the ferromagnet near the S/F interface. We demonstrate that not only the singlet but also the triplet component of the superconducting condensate is induced in the ferromagnet due to the proximity effect. The singlet component penetrates into the ferromagnet over a short length xi(h) = sqrt[D/h] ( h is the exchange field and D the diffusion coefficient), whereas the triplet component penetrates over a long length sqrt[D/epsilon] and leads to a significant increase of the ferromagnet conductance below the superconducting critical temperature Tc.