Magnetic-superconducting oxide heterostructures

Advances in thin film deposition techniques, in particular molecular beam epitaxy, have made it possible to produce heterostructures of high temperature superconductors and manganite perovskites. The latter exhibit the phenomenon of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR). The half-metallic character of the CMR compounds results in their carriers being spin polarized. Experiments with these heterostructures have demonstrated that the injection of spin polarized carriers into high temperature superconductors results in a reduction of parameters such as the critical current and critical temperature.