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Superconducting spin valves controlled by spiral re-orientation in B20-family magnets
We propose a superconducting spin-triplet valve of a new type. This spin valve consists of a bilayer
that involves a superconductor and an itinerant magnetic material, with the magnet showing an
intrinsic non-collinear magnetic order characterized by a wave vector Q that may be aligned in a
few equivalent preferred directions under control of a weak external magnetic eld. Re-orienting the
direction of Q allows one to controllably modify long-range spin-triplet superconducting correlations
in the magnetic material, leading to spin-valve switching behavior. Our results indicate that the
spin-valve effect may be noticeable. This new type of superconducting spin valve may be used
as a magnetic memory element for cryogenic nanoelectronics. It has the following advantages in
comparison with superconducting spin valves proposed earlier: (i) it contains only one magnetic
layer, which may be more easily fabricated and controlled; (ii) its ground states are separated by
a potential barrier, which solves the \half-select" problem of the addressed switch of such memory
elements.