Spin pumping into a superconductor: evidence of superconducting pure spin currents

Chiara CICCARELLI

Unlike conventional spin-singlet Cooper pairs, spin-triplet pairs can carry spin. Triplet supercurrents were discovered in Josephson junctions with metallic ferromagnet spacers, where spin transport can occur only within the ferromagnet and in conjunction with a charge current. Ferromagnetic resonance injects a pure spin current from a precessing ferromagnet into adjacent non-magnetic materials. For spin-singlet pairing, the ferromagnetic resonance spin pumping efficiency decreases below the critical temperature (Tc) of a coupled superconductor. Here we present ferromagnetic resonance experiments in which spin sink layers with strong spin–orbit coupling are added to the superconductor. We show that the induced spin currents, rather than being suppressed, are substantially larger in the superconducting state compared with the normal state and show that this cannot be mediated by quasiparticles and is most likely a triplet pure spin supercurrent.