A superconducting spin valve (SSV) is a device typically having a ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet (F/S/F) sandwich structure. It can switch between a resistive and a dissipationless state upon the application of a small in-plane magnetic field, which allows the relative orientation of the F-layer magnetizations to change from parallel to antiparallel, respectively.
Here, we demonstrate that a SSV based on non-centrosymmetric superconducting NbRe films displays an inverse spin valve effect. This result can be ascribed to the presence of a unconventional pairing of the super-electrons, which are bound with their spins laying parallel to each other (triplet pairing), contrary to the standard antiparallel configuration of the Cooper pairs. This result is significant since triplets are not artificially generated at interfaces, but intrinsically present in NbRe films, due to its peculiar crystal structure. The availability of material hosting triplet correlations may boost the field of superconducting spintronics.
For more details:
Unveiling Intrinsic Triplet Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric NbRe through Inverse Spin-Valve Effects
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 226002 – Published 25 November, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q1nb-cvh6
