[ Previous / Next Abstract | Issue Table of Contents | Bottom of Page ]

Phys. Rev. B 63, 064407 (2001) (4 pages)

Full Text:  [  PDF (113 kB)   GZipped PS    Order Document  ]

Interface resistance of disordered magnetic multilayers

K. Xia and P. J. Kelly

Faculty of Applied Physics and MESA ⁺ Research Institute, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

G. E. W. Bauer

Department of Applied Physics and DIMES, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands

I. Turek

Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-616 62 Brno, Czech Republic

J. Kudrnovský and V. Drchal

Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-182 21 Prague, Czech Republic

(Received 9 October 2000; published 19 January 2001)

We study the effect of interface disorder on the spin-dependent interface resistances of Co/Cu, Fe/Cr, and Au/Ag multilayers using a newly developed method for calculating transmission matrices from first-principles. The efficient implementation using tight-binding linear-muffin-tin orbitals allows us to model interface disorder using large lateral supercells whereby specular and diffuse scattering are treated on an equal footing. Without introducing any free parameters, quantitative agreement with experiment is obtained. We predict that disorder reduces the majority-spin interface resistance of Fe/Cr(100) multilayers by a factor 3. ©2001 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v63/e064407
doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.63.064407
PACS: 75.70.Pa, 72.10.-d, 71.15.Ap        Additional Information

References

1. M.N. Baibich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2472 (1988);
   G. Binasch et al., Phys. Rev. B 39, 4828 (1989).
   
2. P.M. Levy, Solid State Phys. 47, 367 (1994).
   
3. M.A.M. Gijs and G.E.W. Bauer, Adv. Phys. 46, 285 (1997); [INSPEC]
   J.-Ph. Ansermet, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 10, 6027 (1998). [INSPEC]
   
4. A. Barthélémy, A. Fert, and F. Petroff, Handbook of Magnetic Materials, edited by K.H.J. Buschow (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1999), Vol. 12.
   
5. W.P. Pratt, Jr., S.-F. Lee, J.M. Slaughter, R. Loloee, P.A. Schroeder, and J. Bass, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 3060 (1991).
   
6. M.A.M. Gijs, S.K.J. Lenczowski, and J.B. Giesbers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 3343 (1993).
   
7. T. Valet and A. Fert, Phys. Rev. B 48, 7099 (1993).
   
8. J. Bass and W.P. Pratt, Jr., J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 200, 274 (1999) (ScienceDirect). [INSPEC]
   
9. Local probes such as NMR [e.g., H.A.M. de Gronckel et al., Phys. Rev. B 44, 9100 (1991)];
   or magnetic EXAFS [e.g., Cz. Kapusta, P. Fischer, and G. Schuetz, J. Alloys. Compd. 286, 37 (1999)] support this model for the interface disorder. [INSPEC]
   
10. K.M. Schep, P.J. Kelly, and G.E.W. Bauer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 586 (1995).
    
11. P. Zahn, I. Mertig, M. Richter, and H. Eschrig, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 2996 (1995).
    
12. A. Brataas and G.E.W. Bauer, Phys. Rev. B 49, 14 684 (1994).
    
13. S. Zhang and P.M. Levy, Phys. Rev. B 57, 5336 (1998).
    
14. K.M. Schep, J.B.A.N. van Hoof, P.J. Kelly, G.E.W. Bauer, and J.E. Inglesfield, Phys. Rev. B 56, 10 805 (1997)
    
15. M.D. Stiles and D.R. Penn, Phys. Rev. B 61, 3200 (2000).
    
16. I. Turek, V. Drchal, J. Kudrnovský, M. ob, and P. Weinberger, Electronic Structure of Disordered Alloys, Surfaces and Interfaces (Kluwer, Boston, 1997).
    
17. O.K. Andersen, O. Jepsen, and D. Glötzel, in Highlights of Condensed Matter Theory, edited by F. Bassani, F. Fumi and M.P. Tosi (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1985), p. 59.
    
18. S. Datta, Electronic Transport in Mesoscopic Systems (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995).
    
19. P. Bruno et al., J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 198-199, 46 (1999); [INSPEC]
    J. Kudrnovský et al., Czech. J. Phys. 49, 1583 (1999). [INSPEC]
    
20. L.L. Henry, Q. Yang, W.-C. Chiang, P. Holody, R. Loloee, W.P. Pratt, Jr., and J. Bass, Phys. Rev. B 54, 12 336 (1996).
    
21. J. Mathon, Phys. Rev. B 55, 960 (1997).
    

  The American Physical Society is a member of CrossRef.

Citing Articles

1. Ab initio Green-function formulation of the transfer matrix: Application to complex band structures
   D. Wortmann et al., Phys. Rev. B 65, 165103 (2002)
2. Enhanced Gilbert Damping in Thin Ferromagnetic Films
   Yaroslav Tserkovnyak et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 117601 (2002)
3. Interatomic electron transport by semiempirical and ab initio tight-binding approaches
   I. Turek et al., Phys. Rev. B 65, 125101 (2002)
4. Absence of mean-free-path effects in the current-perpendicular-to-plane magnetoresistance of magnetic multilayers
   K. Eid et al., Phys. Rev. B 65, 054424 (2002)