30 research outputs found
Voltage induced control and magnetoresistance of noncollinear frustrated magnets
Noncollinear frustrated magnets are proposed as a new class of spintronic
materials with high magnetoresistance which can be controlled with relatively
small applied voltages. It is demonstrated that their magnetic configuration
strongly depends on position of the Fermi energy and applied voltage. The
voltage induced control of noncollinear frustrated materials (VCFM) can be seen
as a way to intrinsic control of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) and is the
bulk material counterpart of spin transfer torque concept used to control giant
magnetoresistance in layered spin-valve structures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Intrinsic spin orbit torque in a single domain nanomagnet
We present theoretical studies of the intrinsic spin orbit torque (SOT) in a
single domain ferromagnetic layer with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) using
the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism for a model Hamiltonian. We find
that, to the first order in SOC, the intrinsic SOT has only the field-like
torque symmetry and can be interpreted as the longitudinal spin current induced
by the charge current and Rashba field. We analyze the results in terms of the
material related parameters of the electronic structure, such as band filling,
band width, exchange splitting, as well as the Rashba SOC strength. On the
basis of these numerical and analytical results, we discuss the magnitude and
sign of SOT. Our results show that the different sign of SOT in identical
ferromagnetic layers with different supporting layers, e.g. Co/Pt and Co/Ta,
could be attributed to electrostatic doping of the ferromagnetic layer by the
support.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Impurity-induced tuning of quantum well states in spin-dependent resonant tunneling
We report exact model calculations of the spin-dependent tunneling in double
magnetic tunnel junctions in the presence of impurities in the well. We show
that the impurity can tune selectively the spin channels giving rise to a wide
variety of interesting and novel transport phenomena. The tunneling
magnetoresistance, the spin polarization and the local current can be
dramatically enhanced or suppressed by impurities. The underlying mechanism is
the impurity-induced shift of the quantum well states (QWS) which depends on
the impurity potential, impurity position and the symmetry of the QWS.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Analytical description of ballistic spin currents and torques in magnetic tunnel junctions
In this work we demonstrate explicit analytical expressions for both charge
and spin currents which constitute the 2x2 spinor in magnetic tunnel junctions
with noncollinear magnetizations under applied voltage. The calculations have
been performed within the free electron model in the framework of the Keldysh
formalism and WKB approximation. We demonstrate that spin/charge currents and
spin transfer torques are all explicitly expressed through only three
irreducible quantities, without further approximations. The conditions and
mechanisms of deviation from the conventional sine angular dependence of both
spin currents and torques are shown and discussed. It is shown in the thick
barrier approximation that all tunneling transport quantities can be expressed
in an extremely simplified form via Slonczewski spin polarizations and our
effective spin averaged interfacial transmission probabilities and effective
out-of-plane polarizations at both interfaces. It is proven that the latter
plays a key role in the emergence of perpendicular spin torque as well as in
the angular dependence character of all spin and charge transport considered.
It is demonstrated directly also that for any applied voltage, the parallel
component of spin current at the FM/I interface is expressed via collinear
longitudinal spin current components. Finally, spin transfer torque behavior is
analyzed in a view of transverse characteristic length scales for spin
transport.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Voltage Dependence of Spin Transfer Torque in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Theoretical investigations of spin transfer torque in magnetic tunnel
junctions using the tight-binding model in the framework of non-equilibrium
Green functions formalism are presented. We show that the behavior of the spin
transfer torque as a function of applied voltage can vary over a wide range
depending on the band parameters of the ferromagnetic electrodes and the
insulator that comprise the magnetic tunnel junction. The behavior of both the
parallel and perpendicular components of the spin torque is addressed. This
behavior is explained in terms of the spin and charge current dependence and on
the interplay between evanescent states in the insulator and the Fermi surfaces
of ferromagnetic electrodes comprising the junction. The origin of the
perpendicular (field-like) component of spin transfer torque at zero bias, i.e.
exchange coupling through the barrier between ferromagnetic electrodes is
discussed.Comment: 5 pages,4 figure
First-principles quantum transport modeling of spin-transfer and spin-orbit torques in magnetic multilayers
We review a unified approach for computing: (i) spin-transfer torque in
magnetic trilayers like spin-valves and magnetic tunnel junction, where
injected charge current flows perpendicularly to interfaces; and (ii)
spin-orbit torque in magnetic bilayers of the type
ferromagnet/spin-orbit-coupled-material, where injected charge current flows
parallel to the interface. Our approach requires to construct the torque
operator for a given Hamiltonian of the device and the steady-state
nonequilibrium density matrix, where the latter is expressed in terms of the
nonequilibrium Green's functions and split into three contributions. Tracing
these contributions with the torque operator automatically yields field-like
and damping-like components of spin-transfer torque or spin-orbit torque
vector, which is particularly advantageous for spin-orbit torque where the
direction of these components depends on the unknown-in-advance orientation of
the current-driven nonequilibrium spin density in the presence of spin-orbit
coupling. We provide illustrative examples by computing spin-transfer torque in
a one-dimensional toy model of a magnetic tunnel junction and realistic
Co/Cu/Co spin-valve, both of which are described by first-principles
Hamiltonians obtained from noncollinear density functional theory calculations;
as well as spin-orbit torque in a ferromagnetic layer described by a
tight-binding Hamiltonian which includes spin-orbit proximity effect within
ferromagnetic monolayers assumed to be generated by the adjacent monolayer
transition metal dichalcogenide.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, PDFLaTeX; prepared for Springer Handbook of
Materials Modeling, Volume 2 Applications: Current and Emerging Material
Semiconductor Spintronics
Spintronics refers commonly to phenomena in which the spin of electrons in a
solid state environment plays the determining role. In a more narrow sense
spintronics is an emerging research field of electronics: spintronics devices
are based on a spin control of electronics, or on an electrical and optical
control of spin or magnetism. This review presents selected themes of
semiconductor spintronics, introducing important concepts in spin transport,
spin injection, Silsbee-Johnson spin-charge coupling, and spindependent
tunneling, as well as spin relaxation and spin dynamics. The most fundamental
spin-dependent nteraction in nonmagnetic semiconductors is spin-orbit coupling.
Depending on the crystal symmetries of the material, as well as on the
structural properties of semiconductor based heterostructures, the spin-orbit
coupling takes on different functional forms, giving a nice playground of
effective spin-orbit Hamiltonians. The effective Hamiltonians for the most
relevant classes of materials and heterostructures are derived here from
realistic electronic band structure descriptions. Most semiconductor device
systems are still theoretical concepts, waiting for experimental
demonstrations. A review of selected proposed, and a few demonstrated devices
is presented, with detailed description of two important classes: magnetic
resonant tunnel structures and bipolar magnetic diodes and transistors. In most
cases the presentation is of tutorial style, introducing the essential
theoretical formalism at an accessible level, with case-study-like
illustrations of actual experimental results, as well as with brief reviews of
relevant recent achievements in the field.Comment: tutorial review; 342 pages, 132 figure