Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 28: Superconductivity: Heterostructures, Andreev Scattering, Proximity Effect, Coexistence

TT 28.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 15:45–16:00, HSZ 105

Broken time-reversal-symmetry in triplet superconductor junctions — •Philip Brydon¹, Christian Iniotakis², Dirk Manske³, and Manfred Sigrist² — ¹Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany — ²ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland — ³Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, Germany

A rich variety of unconventional Josephson effects have been predicted for junctions combining magnetism and triplet superconductivity (e.g. P. M. R. Brydon et al., Phys. Rev. B 77, 104504 (2008); P. M. R. Brydon, D. Manske and M. Sigrist, J. Phys. Soc. Japan 77, 103714 (2008)). Previous works assume, however, that the properties of the barrier material are independent of the two superconductors. We demonstrate that this assumption fails in a scenario where time-reversal symmetry is broken by the misalignment of the d-vectors of the triplet superconductors on either side of the junction. This allows the stabilization of a barrier magnetization, creating an exotic Josephson state distinguished by the existence of fractional flux quanta at the junction barrier. There is also a pronounced enhancement of the critical current through the junction at temperatures below the magnetic transition.