Magnetoanisotropic Andreev Reflection in Ferromagnet-Superconductor Junctions

Abstract

Andreev reflection spectroscopy of ferromagnet-superconductor (FS) junctions [corrected] is an important probe of spin polarization. We theoretically investigate spin-polarized transport in FS junctions in the presence of Rashba and Dresselhaus interfacial spin-orbit fields and show that Andreev reflection can be controlled by changing the magnetization orientation. We predict a giant in- and out-of-plane magnetoanisotropy of the junction conductance. If the ferromagnet is highly spin polarized-in the half-metal limit-the magnetoanisotropic Andreev reflection depends universally on the spin-orbit fields only. Our results show that Andreev reflection spectroscopy can be used for sensitive probing of interfacial spin-orbit fields in a FS junction.