Exchange Biased & Plain Superconducting Ferromagnetic Layered Hybrids

It is generally believed that superconductivity (SC) and ferromagnetism (FM) are two antagonistic long-range phenomena since the exchange field is detrimental to conventional singlet-pairing mechanisms. Here, the authors show that under specific circumstances these two phenomena may become co-operative so that their synergy may promote the transport properties of SC-FM layered hybrids. They have studied systematically the magnetic and transport behaviour of such exchange biased and plain layered hybrids that are comprised of Ni80Fe20 and low-Tc Nb as the FM and SC ingredients. Four structures have been studied: exchange biased FM-SC-FM trilayers (TLs), exchange biased FM-SC bilayers (BLs), and also their respective plain ones.