The Role of Inelastic Scattering in Intermediate Spin Polarized Normal Metal/Superconductor Point Contacts

Charge transport in ferromagnetic normal metal/superconductor point contacts is constrained by both the limited minority spin population, which reduces the probability of the Andreev reflection process, and by quasiparticle finite-lifetime effects, i.e., inelastic scattering, which influences the probability of ordinary electron transport. For the case of intermediate polarization 0.30 $\le $ P $\le $ 0.60, where 0 $\le $ P $\le $ 1.0, these processes can play equally important roles. We present results for normalized conductance at zero bias, as a function of temperature, and for conductance as a function of voltage, at P = 0.40, parametrically, for the entire range of inelastic scattering. Experimental results for point contacts will be presented.