We report a comparative analysis and theoretical description of the superconducting properties of two spin-valve-valve structures containing the Heusler alloy Co2Cr1−xFexAly as one of two ferromagnetic (F1 or F2) layers of the F1/F2/S structure, where S stands for the superconducting Pb layer. In our experiments we used the Heusler alloy layer in two roles: as a weak ferromagnet on the place of the F2 layer and as a half-metal on the place of the F1 layer. In the first case, we obtained a large ordinary superconducting spin-valve effect ΔTc assisted by the triplet superconducting spin-valve effect ΔTctrip. In the second case, we observed a giant magnitude of ΔTctrip reaching 0.5 K. An underlying theory based on the solution of the Usadel equations using Kupriyanov-Lukichev boundary conditions with arbitrary material parameters for all layers and arbitrary boundary parameters for all interfaces is presented in Appendix. We find a good agreement between our experimental data and theoretical results.
@article{arxiv.1911.09984,
title = {Superconducting spin-valve effect in heterostructures with ferromagnetic Heusler alloy layers},
author = {A. A. Kamashev and N. N. Garif'yanov and A. A. Validov and J. Schumann and V. Kataev and B. Büchner and Ya. V. Fominov and I. A. Garifullin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.09984},
year = {2019}
}