2,206 research outputs found
Spin injection from a half-metal at finite temperatures
Spin injection from a half-metallic electrode in the presence of thermal spin
disorder is analyzed using a combination of random matrix theory,
spin-diffusion theory, and explicit simulations for the tight-binding s-d
model. It is shown that efficient spin injection from a half-metal is possible
as long as the effective resistance of the normal metal does not exceed a
characteristic value, which does not depend on the resistance of the
half-metallic electrode, but is rather controlled by spin-flip scattering at
the interface. This condition can be formulated as \alpha<(l/L)/T, where \alpha
is the relative deviation of the magnetization from saturation, l and L the
mean-free path and the spin-diffusion length in the non-magnetic channel, and T
the transparency of the tunnel barrier at the interface (if present). The
general conclusions are confirmed by tight-binding s-d model calculations. A
rough estimate suggests that efficient spin injection from true half-metallic
ferromagnets into silicon or copper may be possible at room temperature across
a transparent interface.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, revtex4-1; expanded introduction, added
references, additional comments in Section V, fixed typo
First-principles analysis of spin-disorder resistivity of Fe and Ni
Spin-disorder resistivity of Fe and Ni and its temperature dependence are
analyzed using noncollinear density functional calculations within the
supercell method. Different models of thermal spin disorder are considered,
including the mean-field approximation and the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg
model. Spin-disorder resistivity is found to depend weakly on magnetic
short-range order. If the local moments are kept frozen at their
zero-temperature values, very good agreement with experiment is obtained for
Fe, but for Ni the resistivity at elevated temperatures is significantly
overestimated. Agreement with experiment for Fe is improved if the local
moments are iterated to self-consistency. The overestimation of the resistivity
for paramagnetic Ni is attributed to the reduction of the local moments down to
0.35 Bohr magnetons. Overall, the results suggest that low-energy spin
fluctuations in Fe and Ni are better viewed as classical rotations of local
moments rather than quantized spin fluctuations that would require an (S+1)/S
correction.Comment: 10 pages (RevTeX), 6 eps figure
Calculations of spin-disorder resistivity from first principles
Spin-disorder resistivity of Fe and Ni is studied using the noncollinear
density functional theory. The Landauer conductance is averaged over random
disorder configurations and fitted to Ohm's law. The distribution function is
approximated by the mean-field theory. The dependence of spin-disorder
resistivity on magnetization in Fe is found to be in excellent agreement with
the results for the isotropic s-d model. In the fully disordered state,
spin-disorder resistivity for Fe is close to experiment, while for fcc Ni it
exceeds the experimental value by a factor of 2.3. This result indicates strong
magnetic short-range order in Ni at the Curie temperature.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Magnetism of chromia
The electronic structure and magnetism of chromia (corundum-type Cr2O3) are
studied using full-potential first-principles calculations. The electronic
correlations are included within the LSDA+U method. The energies of different
magnetic configurations are very well fitted by the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with
strong exchange interaction with two nearest neighbors and additional weak
interaction up to the fifth neighbor shell. These energies are insensitive to
the position of the oxygen states, indicating that magnetism in Cr2O3 is
dominated by direct exchange. The Neel temperature is calculated using the
pair-cluster approximation for localized quantum spins of magnitude 3/2. Very
good agreement with experiment is found for all properties including the
equilibrium volume, spectral density, local magnetic moment, band gap, and the
Neel temperature for the values of U and J that are close to those obtained
within the constrained occupation method. The band gap is of the Mott-Hubbard
type.Comment: 6 pages, 2 eps figure
Kondo-Dicke resonances in electronic transport through triple quantum dots
Electronic transport through a triple quantum dot system, with only a single
dot coupled directly to external leads, is considered theoretically. The model
includes Coulomb correlations in the central dot, while such correlations in
the two side-coupled dots are omitted. The infinite-U mean-field slave-boson
approach is used to obtain basic transport characteristics in the Kondo regime.
When tuning position of the side-coupled dots' levels, transition from
subradiant to superradiant like mode (and vice versa) has been found in the
spectral function, in analogy to the Dicke effect in atomic physics. Bias
dependence of the differential conductance and zero frequency shot noise is
also analysed.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
Nonequilibrium dynamics of mixtures of active and passive colloidal particles
We develop a mesoscopic field theory for the collective nonequilibrium
dynamics of multicomponent mixtures of interacting active (i.e., motile) and
passive (i.e., nonmotile) colloidal particles with isometric shape in two
spatial dimensions. By a stability analysis of the field theory, we obtain
equations for the spinodal that describes the onset of a motility-induced
instability leading to cluster formation in such mixtures. The prediction for
the spinodal is found to be in good agreement with particle-resolved computer
simulations. Furthermore, we show that in active-passive mixtures the spinodal
instability can be of two different types. One type is associated with a
stationary bifurcation and occurs also in one-component active systems, whereas
the other type is associated with a Hopf bifurcation and can occur only in
active-passive mixtures. Remarkably, the Hopf bifurcation leads to moving
clusters. This explains recent results from simulations of active-passive
particle mixtures, where moving clusters and interfaces that are not seen in
the corresponding one-component systems have been observed.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure
Spin-density fluctuations and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem in 3d ferromagnetic metals
Spatial and time scales of spin density fluctuations (SDF) were analyzed in
3d ferromagnets using ab initio linear response calculations of complete
wavevector and energy dependence of the dynamic spin susceptibility tensor. We
demonstrate that SDF are spread continuously over the entire Brillouin zone and
while majority of them reside within the 3d bandwidth, a significant amount
comes from much higher energies. A validity of the adiabatic approximation in
spin dynamics is discussed. The SDF spectrum is shown to have two main
constituents: a minor low-energy spin wave contribution and a much larger
high-energy component from more localized excitations. Using the
fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT), the on-site spin correlator (SC) and the
related effective fluctuating moment were properly evaluated and their
universal dependence on the 3d band population is further discussed
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