We report measurements of the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, in CoO/Co/Cu/Co/Nb multilayers as a function of the angle α between the magnetic moments of the Co layers. Our measurements reveal that Tc(α) is a nonmonotonic function, with a minimum near α=π/2. Numerical self-consistent solutions of the Bogoliubov - de Gennes equations quantitatively and accurately describe the behavior of Tc as a function of α and layer thicknesses in these superconductor / spin-valve heterostructures. We show that experimental data and theoretical evidence agree in relating Tc(α) to enhanced penetration of the triplet component of the condensate into the Co/Cu/Co spin valve in the maximally noncollinear magnetic configuration.
@article{arxiv.1404.2304,
title = {Angular dependence of superconductivity in superconductor / spin valve heterostructures},
author = {Alejandro A. Jara and Christopher Safranski and Ilya N. Krivorotov and Chien-Te Wu and Abdul N. Malmi-Kakkada and Oriol T. Valls and Klaus Halterman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.2304},
year = {2014}
}