101 research outputs found
Interface resistance of disordered magnetic multilayers
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 {\it reduces} the majority-spin interface resistance of
Fe/Cr(100) multilayers by a factor 3.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Magnetism of 3d transition metal atoms on W(001): submonolayer films
We have investigated random submonolayer films of 3d transition metals on
W(001). The tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital method combined with the
coherent potential approximation was employed to calculate the electronic
structure of the films. We have estimated local magnetic moments and the
stability of different magnetic structures, namely the ferromagnetic order, the
disordered local moments and the non-magnetic state, by comparing the total
energies of the corresponding systems. It has been found that the magnetic
moments of V and Cr decrease and eventually disappear with decreasing coverage.
On the other hand, Fe retains approximately the same magnetic moment throughout
the whole concentration range from a single impurity to the monolayer coverage.
Mn is an intermediate case between Cr and Fe since it is non-magnetic at very
low coverages and ferromagnetic otherwise.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures in 6 files; presented at ICN&T 2006, Basel,
Switzerlan
Magnetism of mixed quaternary Heusler alloys: (Ni,T)MnSn (T=Cu,Pd) as a case study
The electronic properties, exchange interactions, finite-temperature
magnetism, and transport properties of random quaternary Heusler NiMnSn
alloys doped with Cu- and Pd-atoms are studied theoretically by means of {\it
ab initio} calculations over the entire range of dopant concentrations. While
the magnetic moments are only weakly dependent on the alloy composition, the
Curie temperatures exhibit strongly non-linear behavior with respect to
Cu-doping in contrast with an almost linear concentration dependence in the
case of Pd-doping. The present parameter-free theory agrees qualitatively and
also reasonably well quantitatively with the available experimental results. An
analysis of exchange interactions is provided for a deeper understanding of the
problem. The dopant atoms perturb electronic structure close to the Fermi
energy only weakly and the residual resistivity thus obeys a simple Nordheim
rule. The dominating contribution to the temperature-dependent resistivity is
due to thermodynamical fluctuations originating from the spin-disorder, which,
according to our calculations, can be described successfully via the disordered
local moments model. Results based on this model agree fairly well with the
measured values of spin-disorder induced resistivity.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure
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