Double percolation effects and fractal behavior in magnetic/superconducting hybrids

Abstract

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy ferromagnetic/superconducting (FM/SC) bilayers with a labyrinth domain structure are used to study nucleation of superconductivity on a fractal network, tunable through magnetic history. As clusters of reversed domains appear in the FM layer, the SC film shows a percolative behavior that depends on two independent processes: the arrangement of initial reversed domains and the fractal geometry of expanding clusters. For a full labyrinth structure, the behavior of the upper critical field is typical of confined superconductivity on a fractal network. © IOP Publishing and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.