Percolative supercurrent in superconductor-ferromagnetic insulator bilayers

Abstract

We report tunneling spectroscopy and transport measurements in superconducting Al and ferromagnetic insulator EuS bilayers. The samples display remanent spin splitting, roughly half the superconducting gap, and supercurrent transport above the average paramagnetic limit. We interpret this behavior as arising from the interplay between two characteristic length scales: the superconducting coherence length ζ and the magnetic domain size d. By comparing experimental results to a theoretical model, we find ζ/d≈10. In this regime, spin averaging across the micromagnetic configuration can locally suppress superconductivity, resulting in percolative supercurrent flow.