Ultrasensitive interplay between ferromagnetism and superconductivity in NbGd composite thin films.

ABSTRACT: 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 temperat

SUBMITTER: Bawa A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4698659 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature