Interplay of magnetic and superconducting proximity effects in ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet trilayers

Abstract

We present theoretical results on the interplay of magnetic and superconducting orders in diffusive ferromagnet-superconductor-ferromagnet trilayers. The induced triplet superconducting correlations throughout the trilayer lead to an induced spin magnetization. We include self-consistency of the order parameter in the superconducting layer at arbitrary temperatures, arbitrary interface transparency, and any relative orientation of the exchange fields in the two ferromagnets. We propose to use the torque on the trilayer in an external magnetic field as a probe of the presence of triplet correlations in the superconducting phase.