Proximity effect in superconductor/ferromagnet layered system: Influence of superconductivity on magnetic properties of Nb/Fe epitaxial bilayers

Magnetic and superconducting properties of Fe/Nb epitaxial bilayers have been studied. Single crystal Fe/Nb (110) bilayers with a Nb thicknessd Nb in the range from 250 to 650 A and with a Fe thicknessd Fe in the range from 7 to 27 A were prepared using molecular beam epitaxy techniques. Magnetization measurements showed the existence of a magnetically “dead” Fe-interface layer with a thicknessd NM varying strongly with minor modifications of the growth conditions. For bilayers with a small magnetic layer thicknessd M and a smalld NM the FMR measurements revealed an anomalous decrease of the effective magnetization 4πM eff of the ferromagnetic Fe layer below the superconducting transition temperatureT c. The absolute change of 4πM eff belowT c depends strongly on the actual values ofd M andd NM: upon decreasing bothd M andd NM the effect increases considerably. As a possible mechanism for the anomalous temperature dependence of 4πM eff belowT c we discuss a spatial modulation of ferromagnetic order due to a modification of the RKKY inter-action in the superconducting state.