Superconducting spin valve effect of a V layer coupled to an antiferromagnetic [Fe/V] superlattice -: art. no. 097003

We studied superconducting V layers deposited on an antiferromagnetically coupled [Fe2V11](20) superlattice. The parallel upper critical magnetic field exhibits an anomalous T dependence up to the ferromagnetic saturation field of the superlattice, indicating that the superconducting transition temperature T-S decreases when rotating the relative sublattice magnetization directions of the superlattice from antiparallel to parallel. This proves that the pair breaking effect of a Fe-2 layer is reduced if at a distance of 1.5 nm a second Fe-2 layer with antiparallel spin orientation exists.