Superconductivity induced by interfacial coupling to magnons

Abstract

We consider a thin normal metal sandwiched between two ferromagnetic insulators. At the interfaces, the exchange coupling causes electrons within the metal to interact with magnons in the insulators. This electron-magnon interaction induces electron-electron interactions, which in turn can result in p-wave superconductivity. We solve the gap equation numerically and estimate the critical temperature. In yttrium iron garnet (YIG)-Au-YIG trilayers, superconductivity sets in at temperatures somewhere in the interval between 1 and 10 K. EuO-Au-EuO trilayers require a lower temperature, in the range from 0.01 to 1 K.