Spin-transport in multi-terminal normal metal - ferromagnet systems with non-collinear magnetizations

A theory of spin-transport in hybrid normal metal - ferromagnetic electronic circuits is developed, taking into account non-collinear spin-accumulation. Spin-transport through resistive elements is described by 4 conductance parameters. Microscopic expression for these conductances are derived in terms of scattering matrices and explicitly calculated for simple models. The circuit theory is applied to 2-terminal and 3-terminal devices attached to ferromagnetic reservoirs.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Giant current fluctuations in an overheated single electron transistor

Interplay of cotunneling and single-electron tunneling in a thermally isolated single-electron transistor (SET) leads to peculiar overheating effects. In particular, there is an interesting crossover interval where the competition between cotunneling and single-electron tunneling changes to the dominance of the latter. In this interval, the current exhibits anomalous sensitivity to the effective electron temperature of the transistor island and its fluctuations. We present a detailed study of the current and temperature fluctuations at this interesting point. The methods implemented allow for a complete characterization of the distribution of the fluctuating quantities, well beyond the Gaussian approximation. We reveal and explore the parameter range where, for sufficiently small transistor islands, the current fluctuations become gigantic. In this regime, the optimal value of the current, its expectation value, and its standard deviation differ from each other by parametrically large factors. This situation is unique for transport in nanostructures and for electron transport in general. The origin of this spectacular effect is the exponential sensitivity of the current to the fluctuating effective temperature.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure