Hybrid superconducting heterostructures with magnetic interlayers

Electron transport processes in oxide superconducting heterostructures with epitaxially grown magnetic thin-film interlayers, in which the interaction of superconducting correlations and magnetic ordering occurs due to superconducting and magnetic proximity effects, have been studied experimentally. Hybrid mesa-heterostructures were prepared from thin-film bottom cuprate superconductor (S), magnetic (M) interlayer made of manganite or an antiferromagnetic cuprate, and the upper electrode made from an ordinary superconductor. When the cuprate antiferromagnetic material was replaced by a ferromagnetic manganite interlayer, the superconducting current was suppressed, although the thin magnetic film was several times thinner, 5 nm, and the temperature was lowered to 0.3 K. At low temperatures dependences of differential resistance vs. voltage for mesa-heterostructures with manganite interlayer featured mini-gap low-energy states.