Tunneling conductance in Superconductor/Ferromagnet junctions: a self consistent approach

TL;DR

This paper presents a self-consistent numerical analysis of tunneling conductance in superconductor/ferromagnet junctions, revealing complex dependencies on Fermi wavevector mismatch, spin polarization, and interfacial scattering, challenging simplified models.

Contribution

It introduces a fully self-consistent approach to evaluate tunneling conductance, highlighting the importance of FWM and interfacial effects in superconductor/ferromagnet junctions.

Findings

Conductance varies nonmonotonically with FWM for nonzero spin polarization.

Self-consistent results show stronger FWM dependence than non-self-consistent models.

Interfacial scattering dependence is monotonic.

Abstract

We evaluate the tunneling conductance of clean Ferromomagnet/Superconductor junctions via a fully self-consistent numerical solution of the microscopic Bogoliubov-DeGennes equations. We present results for a relevant range of values of the Fermi wavevector mismatch (FWM), the spin polarization, and the interfacial scattering strength. For nonzero spin polarization, the conductance curves vary nonmonotonically with FWM. The FWM dependence of the self-consistent results is stronger than that previously found in non-self-consistent calculations, since, in the self-consistent case, the effective scattering potential near the interface depends on the FWM. The dependence on interfacial scattering is monotonic. These results confirm that it is impossible to characterize both the the FWM and the interfacial scattering by a single effective parameter and that analysis of experimental data via the use of such one-parameter models is unreliable.