Determination of spin polarization using an unconventional iron superconductor

abstract: An unconventional iron superconductor, SmO[subscript 0.7]F[subscript 0.3]FeAs, has been utilized to determine the spin polarization and temperature dependence of a highly spin-polarized material, La[subscript 0.67]Sr[subscript 0.33]MnO[subscript 3], with Andreev reflection spectroscopy. The polarization value obtained is the same as that determined using a conventional superconductor Pb but the temperature dependence of the spin polarization can be measured up to 52 K, a temperature range, which is several times wider than that using a typical conventional superconductor. The result excludes spin-parallel triplet pairing in the iron superconductor.The final version of this article, as published in AIP Advances, can be viewed online at: http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.496862