Ultrasensitive interplay between ferromagnetism and superconductivity in NbGd composite thin films

A model binary hybrid system composed of a randomly distributed rare-earth ferromagnetic (Gd) part embedded in an s-wave superconducting (Nb) matrix is being manufactured to study the interplay between competing superconducting and ferromagnetic order parameters. The normal metallic to superconducti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-01, Vol.6 (1), p.18689-18689, Article 18689
Main Authors: Bawa, Ambika, Gupta, Anurag, Singh, Sandeep, Awana, V.P.S., Sahoo, Sangeeta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/1130/1064
639/766/119/1003
Humanities and Social Sciences
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
multidisciplinary
Phase transitions
Science
Temperature effects
Thin films
Transition temperatures
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Summary:A model binary hybrid system composed of a randomly distributed rare-earth ferromagnetic (Gd) part embedded in an s-wave superconducting (Nb) matrix is being manufactured to study the interplay between competing superconducting and ferromagnetic order parameters. The normal metallic to superconducting phase transition appears to be very sensitive to the magnetic counterpart and the modulation of the superconducing properties follow closely to the Abrikosov-Gor’kov (AG) theory of magnetic impurity induced pair breaking mechanism. A critical concentration of Gd is obtained for the studied NbGd based composite films (CFs) above which superconductivity disappears. Besides, a magnetic ordering resembling the paramagnetic Meissner effect (PME) appears in DC magnetization measurements at temperatures close to the superconducting transition temperature. The positive magnetization related to the PME emerges upon doping Nb with Gd. The temperature dependent resistance measurements evolve in a similar fashion with the concentration of Gd as that with an external magnetic field and in both the cases, the transition curves accompany several intermediate features indicating the traces of magnetism originated either from Gd or from the external field. Finally, the signatures of magnetism appear evidently in the magnetization and transport measurements for the CFs with very low (
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep18689