We study the superconducting proximity effect in a superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor heterostructure containing a domain wall in the ferromagnetic region. For the ferromagnet we assume an alloy with an exchange splitting of the conduction bands comparable to the superconducting gaps. We calculate the modification of the density of states in the center of the domain wall as a result of the proximity effect. We show that the density of states is sensitive to domain-wall parameters due to triplet-pairing correlations created in the vicinity of the domain wall. We present a theoretical tool which in a very effective way enables retaining the full spatially dependent spin-space structure of the problem.

• Received 20 July 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.140501