Spin pumping in d-wave superconductor/ferromagnet hybrids

TL;DR

This study investigates spin-pumping effects in YBCO/d-wave superconductor/ferromagnet hybrids, revealing unique damping behavior linked to d-wave symmetry and surface quasiparticle states, highlighting potential for advanced spintronic control.

Contribution

First experimental analysis of spin-pumping in d-wave superconductor/ferromagnet bilayers, demonstrating d-wave specific effects on magnetization dynamics.

Findings

Gilbert damping drops across the superconducting transition

Damping behavior depends on interface morphology

Evidence of d-wave superconductivity in spin-pumping signals

Abstract

Spin-pumping across ferromagnet/superconductor (F/S) interfaces has attracted much attention lately. Yet the focus has been mainly on s-wave superconductors-based systems whereas (high-temperature) d-wave superconductors such as YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO) have received scarce attention despite their fundamental and technological interest. Here we use wideband ferromagnetic resonance to study spin-pumping effects in bilayers that combine a soft metallic Ni80Fe20 (Py) ferromagnet and YBCO. We evaluate the spin conductance in YBCO by analyzing the magnetization dynamics in Py. We find that the Gilbert damping exhibits a drastic drop as the heterostructures are cooled across the normal-superconducting transition and then, depending on the S/F interface morphology, either stays constant or shows a strong upturn. This unique behavior is explained considering quasiparticle density of states at the YBCO surface, and is a direct consequence of zero-gap nodes for particular directions in the momentum space. Besides showing the fingerprint of d-wave superconductivity in spin-pumping, our results demonstrate the potential of high-temperature superconductors for fine tuning of the magnetization dynamics in ferromagnets using k-space degrees of freedom of d-wave/F interfaces.