Anisotropic magnetoresistance and anisotropic tunneling magnetoresistance due to quantum interference in ferromagnetic metal break junctions

We measure the low-temperature resistance of permalloy break junctions as a function of contact size and the magnetic field angle in applied fields large enough to saturate the magnetization. For both nanometer-scale metallic contacts and tunneling devices we observe large changes in resistance with the angle, as large as 25% in the tunneling regime. The pattern of magnetoresistance is sensitive to changes in bias on a scale of a few mV. We interpret the effect as a consequence of conductance fluctuations due to quantum interference.     

Tunneling magnetoresistance and Hall effect of granular ferromagnetic metals

It is shown that two circumstances must be taken into account in order to describe the tunneling magnetoresistance and Hall effect in granular ferromagnetic metals: 1) the size variance of the metallic granules and 2) the percolation character of the tunneling conductivity of the system, determining the optimal (temperature-dependent) size of the granules through which current transport occurs. This complicates the dependences of the magnetoresistance and Hall resistance of the system on its magnetization and temperature. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 8, 579–584 (25 April 1999)     

Non-linear conductivity and quantum interference in disordered metals

We report on the non-linear electric field effect in the conductivity of disordered conductors. We find that the electron-electron interaction in the particle-hole triplet channel strongly affects the non-linear conductivity. The non-linear effect introduces a field dependent temperature scale T_E and provides a microscopic mechanism for electric field scaling at the metal-insulator transition. We also study the magnetic field dependence of the non-linear conductivity and suggest possible ways to experimentally verify our predictions. These effects offer a new probe to test the role of quantum interference at the metal-insulator transition in disordered conductors. Received 9 February 2000     

Percolation magnetoresistance in ferromagnetic superconductors

It is shown that the magnetoresistance (as a function of magnetic field H) in polycrystalline magnetic superconductors has the percolation character which is the consequence of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility. The magnetoresistance R_m(H), and the upper critical field H_c2(T) of ErRh₄B₄ are evaluated and compared with the experimental data.     

Positive magnetoresistance peaked at a ferromagnetic transition in Mn-doped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

A large positive magnetoresistance peaked at the Curie temperature has been observed in quantum well structures GaAs/AlGaAs doped by Mn. We suggest a new mechanism of magnetoresistance within low T _c ferromagnets resulting from a pronounced dependence of spin polarization at the vicinity of T _c on the external magnetic field. As a result, any contribution to resistance dependent on the Zeeman splitting of the spin subbands is amplified with respect to the direct effect of the external field. In our case we believe that the corresponding contribution is related to the upper Hubbard band. We propose that the mechanism considered here can be exploited as the mark of ferromagnetic transition.     

Large and controllable tunneling magnetoresistance in ferromagnetic/magnetic-semiconductor/ferromagnetic trilayers

In this work, we selected a magnetic-semiconductor as an interlayer and investigated the electronic transport properties in the ferromagnetic/ferromagnetic-semiconductor/ferromagnetic (FM/FS/FM) trilayers. The results indicate that the large TMR comparable to that in ferromagnetic/metal oxide/ferromagnetic sandwich can be obtained in the FM/FS/FM multilayers with considering the spin filter effect in the magnetic semiconductor layer. Moreover, the transmission coefficient and TMR can be tuned through thickness, Rashba spin-orbit coupling strength and molecular field of the magnetic semiconductor. Our calculations could provide a way to design the semiconductor spintronic devices with excellent and controllable properties.     

Electrically controllable conductance and tunneling magnetoresistance through a topological insulator quantum well coupled to ferromagnetic electrodes

We theoretically investigate the electrically controllable conductance and tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) through a two-dimensional topological insulator (TI) quantum well sandwiched between ferromagnetic (FM) electrodes in the method of nonequilibrium Green’s function (GF). It is demonstrated that the inter-edge tunnelings modulated conductance for spin-up and spin-down carriers presents an opposite tend with the polarization of the FM electrodes. The system TMR from the spin-valve effect is observed to be up to 65,000 %, as can be significantly suppressed and enhanced by the backscattering and spin-dephasing effect of the inter-edge spin-conserving and spin-flipping tunneling, respectively, other than the quite different energy-dependent oscillation behavior. The obtained results may provide a deeper understanding of the TI edge states and be used to design a dissipationless spintronic device based on TIs.     

Classical in-plane negative magnetoresistance and quantum positive magnetoresistance in undoped InSb thin films on GaAs (1 0 0) substrates

Magnetoresistance (MR) effects have been investigated in perpendicular and parallel magnetic fields at 300, 80 K and liquid He temperatures for undoped InSb thin films 0.1–2.3 μm thick grown on GaAs(1 0 0) substrates by MBE. At high temperatures, the intrinsic carriers show the parabolic negative MR observable only in magnetic fields parallel to the film. The skipping-orbit effect due to surface boundary scattering in the classical orbits in the plane vertical to the film has been argued to be responsible for the negative MR. At low temperatures (T=80 K), the transport is dominated by the two-dimensional (2D) electrons in the accumulation layers at the InSb/GaAs(1 0 0) hetero interface; MR is positive and shows a logarithmic increase with anisotropy between parallel and perpendicular field orientation, arising from the 2D weak anti-localization (WAL) that reflects the interplay between the spin-Zeeman effect and strong spin–orbit interaction caused by the asymmetric potential at the interface (Rashba term). The zero-field spin splitting energy of Δ₀13 meV, the electron effective mass of m^*0.10m₀ seven times of the band edge mass in bulk InSb and the effective g-factor of |g^*|15 in the accumulation layer have been inferred from fits of MR for the 0.1 μm thick film to the 2D WL theory.     

Negative tunnel magnetoresistance in a quantum dot induced by interplay of a Majorana fermion and thermal-driven ferromagnetic leads

We investigate the spin-related currents and tunnel magnetoresistance through a quantum dot, which is side-coupled with a Majorana fermion zero mode and two thermal-driven ferromagnetic electrodes. It is found that the interplay of Majorana fermion and electrodes' spin polarization can induce a nonlinear thermal-bias spin current. This interplay also decreases the total magnitude of spin or charge current, in either parallel or antiparallel configuration. In addition, a thermal-driven negative tunnel magnetoresistance is found, which is an unique feature to characterize Majorana fermion.With large temperature difference, a step phenomenon is observed in gate tuned spin-up current. When the coupling between quantum dot and topological superconductor is strong enough, this step will evolve into a linear relation, revealing Majorana fermion's robustness.     

Mean-free path effects in magnetoresistance of ferromagnetic nanocontacts

We investigated the mean-free path effects on the magnetoresistance of ferromagnetic nanocontacts. For most combinations of parameters the magnetoresistance monotonously decreases with increasing the contact cross-section. However, for a certain choice of parameters the calculations show non-monotonous behavior of the magnetoresistance in the region in which the diameter of the contact becomes comparable with the mean-free path of electrons. We attribute this effect to different conduction regimes in the vicinity of the nanocontact: ballistic for electrons of one spin projection, and simultaneously diffusive for the other. Furthermore, at certain combinations of spin asymmetries of the bulk mean-free paths in a heterocontact, the magnetoresistance can be almost constant, or may even grow as the contact diameter increases. Thus, our calculations suggest a way to search for combinations of material parameters, for which high magnetoresistances can be achieved not only at the nanometric size of the contact, but also at much larger cross-sections of nanocontacts which can be easier for fabriaction with current technologies. The trial calculations of the magnetoresistance with material parameters close to those for the Mumetal-Ni heterocontacts agree satisfactorily with the available experimental data.     

Enhanced granular magnetoresistance due to ferromagnetic layers

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) of sequentially evaporated Fe-Ag structures has been investigated. Direct experimental evidence is given, showing that inserting ferromagnetic layers into a granular structure significantly enhances the magnetoresistance. The increase in the GMR effect is attributed to spin polarization effects. The large enhancement (up to more than a fourfold value) and the linear variation of the GMR in low magnetic fields are explained by scattering of the spin polarized conduction electrons on paramagnetic grains.     

Impurity resistance in ferromagnetic metals

We studied the electrical resistivity of the ferromagnetic metal due to nonmagnetic impurities by considering the different densities of states at the Fermi surface and the different screened potentials for ± spin electrons. Contrary to Nieminen's result which shows that the electrical resistivity decreases when the magnetization increases, we find that the electric resistivity increases monotonically with increasing magnetization. We also do not find the resistivity minimum predicted by Kim and Schwartz.     

Giant magnetoresistance effect in hybrid ferromagnetic/semiconductor nanosystems

We theoretically investigate the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect in general magnetically modulated semiconductor nanosystems, which can be realized experimentally by depositing two parallel ferromagnetic strips on the top of a heterostructure. Here the exact magnetic profiles and arbitrary magnetization direction of ferromagnetic strips are emphasized. It is shown that a considerable GMR effect can be achieved in such nanosystems due to the significant transmission difference for electrons tunneling through parallel and antiparallel magnetization configurations. It is also shown that the magnetoresistance ratio is strongly influenced by the magnetization direction of ferromagnetic strips in nanosystems, thus possibly leading to tunable GMR devices.     

Proximity effect in ferromagnetic metals

Spin polarized tunneling measurements show that ferromagnetism is suppressed in films of Ni thinner than three atomic layers when in contact with Al. In contrast, ferromagnetism was found in Fe, Co, Gd, and Tm films only one atomic layer thick. Present results on Ni agree with anomalous Hall effect measurements, but do not agree with photoemission results.     

Spin polarization and magnetoresistance through a ferromagnetic barrier in bilayer graphene

We study spin dependent transport through a magnetic bilayer graphene nanojunction configured as a two-dimensional normal/ferromagnetic/normal structure where the gate voltage is applied on the layers of ferromagnetic graphene. Based on the four-band Hamiltonian, conductance is calculated by using the Landauer-Buttiker formula at zero temperature. For a parallel configuration of the ferromagnetic layers of bilayer graphene, the energy band structure is metallic and spin polarization reaches its maximum value close to the resonant states, while for an antiparallel configuration the nanojunction behaves as a semiconductor and there is no spin filtering. As a result, a huge magnetoresistance is achievable by altering the configurations of ferromagnetic graphene around the band gap.     

Enhanced tunnel magnetoresistance due to spin dependent quantum well resonance in specific symmetry states of an ultrathin ferromagnetic electrode

Spin dependent quantum well resonance has been investigated in fully epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions with Fe(001)/MgO(001)/ultrathin Fe(001)/Cr(001) structure. The dI/dV spectra clearly show the resonant peaks which shift systematically depending on the thickness of an ultrathin electrode as predicted in ab initio calculation [Zhong-Yi Lu et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 207210 (2005)]. The magnetotransport is strongly modulated at the same bias voltage as the resonant peaks. This control of the magnetotransport in magnetic tunnel junctions at a specific bias voltage will contribute to the development of active spintronic devices.     

Slow oscillations of magnetoresistance in quasi-two-dimensional metals

Slow oscillations of the interlayer magnetoresistance observed in the layered organic metal beta-(BEDT-TTF)(2)IBr(2) are shown to originate from the slight warping of its Fermi surface rather than from independent small cyclotron orbits. Unlike the usual Shubnikov-de Haas effect, these oscillations are not affected by the temperature smearing of the Fermi distribution and can therefore become dominant at high enough temperatures. We suggest that the slow oscillations are a general feature of clean quasi-two-dimensional metals and discuss possible applications of the phenomenon.