Ferromagnetic–insulator–ferromagnetic tunneling: Spin-dependent tunneling and large magnetoresistance in trilayer junctions (invited)

Moodera, Jagadeesh S.; Kinder, L. R.

doi:10.1063/1.361653

Cited by 366 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Recently, the attention was also drawn to electron tunnelling in magnetic systems [25,26,73,74,90,91,92], which was stimulated by recent progress in nanotechnology. It has been shown theoretically that some qualitatively new effects may arise from the interplay of charging effects and spin degrees of freedom.…”

Section: Ferromagnetic Single-electron Transistors Based On Metallic mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin effects in single-electron tunnelling

Barnaś¹,

Weymann²

2008

J. Phys.: Condens. Matter

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Abstract. An important consequence of the discovery of giant magnetoresistance in metallic magnetic multilayers is a broad interest in spin dependent effects in electronic transport through magnetic nanostructures. An example of such systems are tunnel junctions -single-barrier planar junctions or more complex ones. In this review we present and discuss recent theoretical results on electron and spin transport through ferromagnetic mesoscopic junctions including two or more barriers. Such systems are also called ferromagnetic single-electron transistors. We start from the situation when the central part of a device has the form of a magnetic (or nonmagnetic) metallic nanoparticle. Transport characteristics reveal then single-electron charging effects, including the Coulomb staircase, Coulomb blockade, and Coulomb oscillations. Single-electron ferromagnetic transistors based on semiconductor quantum dots and large molecules (especially carbon nanotubes) are also considered. The main emphasis is placed on the spin effects due to spin-dependent tunnelling through the barriers, which gives rise to spin accumulation and tunnel magnetoresistance. Spin effects also occur in the current-voltage characteristics, (differential) conductance, shot noise, and others. Transport characteristics in the two limiting situations of weak and strong coupling are of particular interest. In the former case we distinguish between the sequential tunnelling and cotunnelling regimes. In the strong coupling regime we concentrate on the Kondo phenomenon, which in the case of transport through quantum dots or molecules leads to an enhanced conductance and to a pronounced zero-bias Kondo peak in the differential conductance.

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Section: Ferromagnetic Single-electron Transistors Based On Metallic mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin effects in single-electron tunnelling

Barnaś¹,

Weymann²

2008

J. Phys.: Condens. Matter

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“…The transmission through the barrier decreases as the relative angle θ between the magnetizations of two ferromagnets is increased from 0 to π. Within a single-particle picture the θ-dependent part of the transmission can be shown [2,3] to be proportional to cos θ. …”

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confidence: 99%

Interaction-Driven Spin Precession in Quantum-Dot Spin Valves

2003

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We analyze spin-dependent transport through spin valves composed of an interacting quantum dot coupled to two ferromagnetic leads. The spin on the quantum dot and the linear conductance as a function of the relative angle θ of the leads' magnetization directions is derived to lowest order in the dot-lead coupling strength. Due to the applied bias voltage spin accumulates on the quantum dot, which for finite charging energy experiences a torque, resulting in spin precession. The latter leads to a non-trivial, interaction-dependent, θ-dependence of the conductance. In particular, we find that the spin-valve effect is reduced for all θ = π. Introduction. -The field of spin-or magnetoelectronics has attracted much interest, for both its beautiful fundamental physics and its potential applications. One famous spin-dependent transport phenomenon is the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) in a spin-valve geometry, in which two ferromagnetic metals are separated by an insulating layer serving as a tunnel barrier [1]. The transmission through the barrier decreases as the relative angle θ between the magnetizations of two ferromagnets is increased from 0 to π. Within a single-particle picture the θ-dependent part of the transmission can be shown [2,3] to be proportional to cos θ.

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“…This temperature dependence is usually obtained with AlO x barriers. 17 If the insulator is poor, in the sense that it possesses a thermally activated hopping conductance, for example, the junction resistance increases with orders of magnitude and the conductance does not show the required sharp peaks at the band-gap edge. 18 Second, we claim that the insulator should consist only of elements with a low atomic number.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%