Anomalous switching in Nb/Ru/Sr2RuO4 topological junctions by chiral domain wall motion

A spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system often results in domain wall formation. The motion of such domain walls is utilized to realize novel devices like racetrack-memories, in which moving ferromagnetic domain walls store and carry information. Superconductors breaking time reversal symmetry ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2013-08, Vol.3 (1), p.2480-2480, Article 2480
Main Authors: Anwar, M. S., Nakamura, Taketomo, Yonezawa, S., Yakabe, M., Ishiguro, R., Takayanagi, H., Maeno, Y.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301
639/766/119
639/766/119/1003
639/766/119/995
Alloys - chemistry
Chirality
Computer Simulation
Electric Conductivity
Humanities and Social Sciences
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
Metals - chemistry
Models, Chemical
Models, Molecular
multidisciplinary
Science
Temperature effects
Topology
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Summary:A spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system often results in domain wall formation. The motion of such domain walls is utilized to realize novel devices like racetrack-memories, in which moving ferromagnetic domain walls store and carry information. Superconductors breaking time reversal symmetry can also form domains with degenerate chirality of their superconducting order parameter. Sr 2 RuO 4 is the leading candidate of a chiral p -wave superconductor, expected to be accompanied by chiral domain structure. Here, we present that Nb/Ru/Sr 2 RuO 4 topological superconducting-junctions, with which the phase winding of order parameter can be effectively probed by making use of real-space topology, exhibit unusual switching between higher and lower critical current states. This switching is well explained by chiral-domain-wall dynamics. The switching can be partly controlled by external parameters such as temperature, magnetic field and current. These results open up a possibility to utilize the superconducting chiral domain wall motion for future novel superconducting devices.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep02480