Spin Hanle effect in mesoscopic superconductors

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY).We present a theoretical study of spin transport in a superconducting mesoscopic spin valve under the action of a magnetic field misaligned with respect to the injected spin. We demonstrate that superconductivity can either strongly enhance or suppress the coherent spin rotation, depending on the type of spin relaxation mechanism being dominated either by spin-orbit coupling or spin-flip scattering at impurities. We also predict a subgap contribution to the nonlocal conductance in multiterminal superconducting hybrid structures which completely eliminates the effect of spin rotation at sufficiently low temperatures.The work of T.T.H. was supported by the Academy of Finland and the European Research Council (Grant No. 240362-Heattronics). The work of F.S.B. has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Project No. FIS2011-28851-C02-02. F.S.B. acknowledges funding from the Leverhulme Trust through an International Network Grant (Grant No. IN-2013-033). P.V. acknowledges the Academy of Finland for financial support.Peer Reviewe