Directional control of the inverse superconducting spin-switch*

We report results on the study of spin dependent transport in La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$/YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-\delta }$/La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$ trilayers, focusing on the effects induced by magnetic anisotropy of the LCMO. The study of magnetic anisotropy through the combination of transport measurements, magnetometry, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and polarized neutron reflectometry, allowed us to unravel the origin of the inverse superconducting spin switch. Applying the magnetic field along the easy axis we obtained a plateau-like response reflecting a well defined antiparallel alignment of the LCMO layers over a wide magnetic field range yielding large magnetoresistance that we ascribe unambiguously to the spin dependent transport.