615 research outputs found
FMR and voltage induced transport in normal metal-ferromagnet-superconductor trilayers
We study the subgap spin and charge transport in normal
metal-ferromagnet-superconductor trilayers induced by bias voltage and/or
magnetization precession. Transport properties are discussed in terms of
time-dependent scattering theory. We assume the superconducting gap is small on
the energy scales set by the Fermi energy and the ferromagnetic exchange
splitting, and compute the non-equilibrium charge and spin current response to
first order in precession frequency, in the presence of a finite applied
voltage. We find that the voltage-induced instantaneous charge current and
longitudinal spin current are unaffected by the precessing magnetization, while
the pumped transverse spin current is determined by spin-dependent conductances
and details of the electron-hole scattering matrix. A simplified expression for
the transverse spin current is derived for structures where the ferromagnet is
longer than the transverse spin coherence length.Comment: 10 page
Frequency-Dependent Current Noise through Quantum-Dot Spin Valves
We study frequency-dependent current noise through a single-level quantum dot
connected to ferromagnetic leads with non-collinear magnetization. We propose
to use the frequency-dependent Fano factor as a tool to detect single-spin
dynamics in the quantum dot. Spin precession due to an external magnetic and/or
a many-body exchange field affects the Fano factor of the system in two ways.
First, the tendency towards spin-selective bunching of the transmitted
electrons is suppressed, which gives rise to a reduction of the low-frequency
noise. Second, the noise spectrum displays a resonance at the Larmor frequency,
whose lineshape depends on the relative angle of the leads' magnetizations.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figure
Crossover from Kondo assisted suppression to co-tunneling enhancement of tunneling magnetoresistance via ferromagnetic nanodots in MgO tunnel barriers
Recently, it has been shown that magnetic tunnel junctions with thin MgO
tunnel barriers exhibit extraordinarily high tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR)
values at room temperature1, 2. However, the physics of spin dependent
tunneling through MgO barriers is only beginning to be unravelled. Using planar
magnetic tunnel junctions in which ultra-thin layers of magnetic metals are
deposited in the middle of a MgO tunnel barrier here we demonstrate that the
TMR is strongly modified when these layers are discontinuous and composed of
small pancake shaped nanodots. At low temperatures, in the Coulomb blockade
regime, for layers less than ~1 nm thick, the conductance of the junction is
increased at low bias consistent with Kondo assisted tunneling. In the same
regime we observe a suppression of the TMR. For slightly thicker layers, and
correspondingly larger nanodots, the TMR is enhanced at low bias, consistent
with co-tunneling.Comment: Nano Letters (in press
Residual Kondo effect in quantum dot coupled to half-metallic ferromagnets
We study the Kondo effect in a quantum dot coupled to half-metallic
ferromagnetic electrodes in the regime of strong on-dot correlations. Using the
equation of motion technique for nonequilibrium Green functions in the slave
boson representation we show that the Kondo effect is not completely suppressed
for anti-parallel leads magnetization. In the parallel configuration there is
no Kondo effect but there is an effect associated with elastic cotunneling
which in turn leads to similar behavior of the local (on-dot) density of states
(LDOS) as the usual Kondo effect. Namely, the LDOS shows the temperature
dependent resonance at the Fermi energy which splits with the bias voltage and
the magnetic field. Moreover, unlike for non-magnetic or not fully polarized
ferromagnetic leads the only minority spin electrons can form such resonance in
the density of states. However, this resonance cannot be observed directly in
the transport measurements and we give some clues how to identify the effect in
such systems.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys.: Condens.
Mat
Action research in physical education: focusing beyond myself through cooperative learning
This paper reports on the pedagogical changes that I experienced as a teacher engaged in an action research project in which I designed and implemented an indirect, developmentally appropriate and child‐centred approach to my teaching. There have been repeated calls to expunge – or at least rationalise – the use of traditional, teacher‐led practice in physical education. Yet despite the advocacy of many leading academics there is little evidence that such a change of approach is occurring. In my role as teacher‐as‐researcher I sought to implement a new pedagogical approach, in the form of cooperative learning, and bring about a positive change in the form of enhanced pupil learning. Data collection included a reflective journal, post‐teaching reflective analysis, pupil questionnaires, student interviews, document analysis, and non‐participant observations. The research team analysed the data using inductive analysis and constant comparison. Six themes emerged from the data: teaching and learning, reflections on cooperation, performance, time, teacher change, and social interaction. The paper argues that cooperative learning allowed me to place social and academic learning goals on an even footing, which in turn placed a focus on pupils’ understanding and improvement of skills in athletics alongside their interpersonal development
Spintronic magnetic anisotropy
An attractive feature of magnetic adatoms and molecules for nanoscale
applications is their superparamagnetism, the preferred alignment of their spin
along an easy axis preventing undesired spin reversal. The underlying magnetic
anisotropy barrier --a quadrupolar energy splitting-- is internally generated
by spin-orbit interaction and can nowadays be probed by electronic transport.
Here we predict that in a much broader class of quantum-dot systems with spin
larger than one-half, superparamagnetism may arise without spin-orbit
interaction: by attaching ferromagnets a spintronic exchange field of
quadrupolar nature is generated locally. It can be observed in conductance
measurements and surprisingly leads to enhanced spin filtering even in a state
with zero average spin. Analogously to the spintronic dipolar exchange field,
responsible for a local spin torque, the effect is susceptible to electric
control and increases with tunnel coupling as well as with spin polarization.Comment: 6 pages with 4 figures + 26 pages of Supplementary Informatio
Magnetic Field Dependence of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling and Coherence of Ferromagnetic Particle
We calculate the quantum tunneling rate of a ferromagnetic particle of diameter in a magnetic field of arbitrary angle. We consider the
magnetocrystalline anisotropy with the biaxial symmetry and that with the
tetragonal symmetry. Using the spin-coherent-state path integral, we obtain
approximate analytic formulas of the tunneling rates in the small -limit for the magnetic field normal to the easy axis (), for the field opposite to the initial easy axis (),
and for the field at an angle between these two orientations (). In addition, we obtain numerically the tunneling rates for
the biaxial symmetry in the full range of the angle of the magnetic
field (), for the values of \epsilon =0.01 and
0.001.Comment: 25 pages of text (RevTex) and 4 figures (PostScript files), to be
published in Phys. Rev.
Shot noise in ferromagnetic single electron tunneling devices
Frequency dependent current noise in ferromagnetic double junctions with
Coulomb blockade is studied theoretically in the limit of sequential tunneling.
Two different relaxation processes are found in the correlations between spin
polarized tunneling currents; low frequency spin fluctuations and high
frequency charge fluctuations. Spin accumulation in strongly asymmetric
junctions is shown to lead to a negative differential resistance. We also show
that large spin noise activated in the range of negative differential
resistance gives rise to a significant enhancement of the current noise.Comment: 8 pages, 13 eps-figures include
Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
Spintronics, or spin electronics, involves the study of active control and
manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. This article
reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent advances and
well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles
underlying the generation of carrier spin polarization, spin dynamics, and
spin-polarized transport in semiconductors and metals. Spin transport differs
from charge transport in that spin is a nonconserved quantity in solids due to
spin-orbit and hyperfine coupling. The authors discuss in detail spin
decoherence mechanisms in metals and semiconductors. Various theories of spin
injection and spin-polarized transport are applied to hybrid structures
relevant to spin-based devices and fundamental studies of materials properties.
Experimental work is reviewed with the emphasis on projected applications, in
which external electric and magnetic fields and illumination by light will be
used to control spin and charge dynamics to create new functionalities not
feasible or ineffective with conventional electronics.Comment: invited review, 36 figures, 900+ references; minor stylistic changes
from the published versio
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