Nano-fabrication and experimental study of mesoscopic superconductors with ferromagnetic electrodes

This thesis is the account of the nanofabrication and experimental study of mesoscopic superconductors with ferromagnetic electrodes. The hypothesis of this thesis is to observe the spin polarised transport properties of ferromagnetic/superconducting mesoscopic devices. It was found that there is a strong mutual influence of ferromagnetic conductors and superconductors in hybrid FS nanostructures. The saturation magnetisation of the ferromagnet can have a strong influence upon any superconductor in physical proximity to a ferromagnetic electrode. Modelling the Zeeman effect, it was clearly shown that there was Zeeman splitting of the quasiparticle spectrum in the superconducting part of the structure. The suppression of the superconducting critical current was observed for current injection from a spin polarised source. An effect attributed to mesoscopic superconductors was also observed in the form of the excess resistance phenomenon. (author)Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN059266 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo