TY - JOUR
T1 - Domain Meissner state and spontaneous vortex-antivortex generation in the ferromagnetic superconductor EuFe2(As0.79P0.21)2
AU - Stolyarov, Vasily S.
AU - Veshchunov, Ivan S.
AU - Grebenchuk, Sergey Yu.
AU - Baranov, Denis S.
AU - Golovchanskiy, Igor A.
AU - Shishkin, Andrey G.
AU - Zhou, Nan
AU - Shi, Zhixiang
AU - Xu, Xiaofeng
AU - Pyon, Sunseng
AU - Sun, Yue
AU - Jiao, Wenhe
AU - Cao, Guang-Han
AU - Vinnikov, Lev Ya.
AU - Golubov, Alexander A.
AU - Tamegai, Tsuyoshi
AU - Buzdin, Alexander I.
AU - Roditchev, Dimitri
PY - 2018/7/13
Y1 - 2018/7/13
N2 - The interplay between superconductivity and magnetism is one of the oldest enigmas in physics. Usually, the strong exchange field of ferromagnet suppresses singlet superconductivity via the paramagnetic effect. In EuFe2(As0.79P0.21)2, a material that becomes not only superconducting at 24.2 K but also ferromagnetic below 19 K, the coexistence of the two antagonistic phenomena becomes possible because of the unusually weak exchange field produced by the Eu subsystem. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that when the ferromagnetism adds to superconductivity, the Meissner state becomes spontaneously inhomogeneous, characterized by a nanometer-scale striped domain structure. At yet lower temperature and without any externally applied magnetic field, the system locally generates quantum vortex-antivortex pairs and undergoes a phase transition into a domain vortex-antivortex state characterized by much larger domains and peculiar Turing-like patterns. We develop a quantitative theory of this phenomenon and put forth a new way to realize superconducting superlattices and control the vortex motion in ferromagnetic superconductors by tuning magnetic domains—unprecedented opportunity to consider for advanced superconducting hybrids.
AB - The interplay between superconductivity and magnetism is one of the oldest enigmas in physics. Usually, the strong exchange field of ferromagnet suppresses singlet superconductivity via the paramagnetic effect. In EuFe2(As0.79P0.21)2, a material that becomes not only superconducting at 24.2 K but also ferromagnetic below 19 K, the coexistence of the two antagonistic phenomena becomes possible because of the unusually weak exchange field produced by the Eu subsystem. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that when the ferromagnetism adds to superconductivity, the Meissner state becomes spontaneously inhomogeneous, characterized by a nanometer-scale striped domain structure. At yet lower temperature and without any externally applied magnetic field, the system locally generates quantum vortex-antivortex pairs and undergoes a phase transition into a domain vortex-antivortex state characterized by much larger domains and peculiar Turing-like patterns. We develop a quantitative theory of this phenomenon and put forth a new way to realize superconducting superlattices and control the vortex motion in ferromagnetic superconductors by tuning magnetic domains—unprecedented opportunity to consider for advanced superconducting hybrids.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050165576&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.aat1061
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aat1061
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85050165576
SN - 2375-2548
VL - 4
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
IS - 7
M1 - eaat1061
ER -