NSF-EC: Magnetotransport in Layered Structures

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project is co-funded by the Division of Materials Research and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, both within the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the International Division as a cooperative activity in materials sciences between the National Science foundation and the European Commission (NSF solicitation 01-105). The project involves the EC Research Training Network (RTN) on Computational Magnetoelectronics whose lead institutions include Daresbury Laboratory (United Kingdom), FZ Juelich (Germany), MSP-MPI Halle (Germany), CNRS Orsay (France), TU Vienna (Austria), University of Twente (Netherlands), Uppsala University (Sweden), Academy of Sciences - Budapest (Hungary) and Institute of Physics of Materials Brno (Czechia). This grant will enable the US research group at NYU to collaborate with members of the EC RTN. The NYU group is focused on analytic and model calculations in magnetoelectronics, whereas the EC expertise is in ab initio calculations of electronic structure and magnetic and transport properties of solids. The RTN is using ab initio methods to assess the importance on the transport properties of magnetic multilayers and tunnel junctions of features identified from calculations based on model Hamiltonians. Specifically, for metallic multilayers the role of spin flip scattering by impurities on magnetoresistance (MR) will be studied, as well as resistivity and MR for currents perpendicular to the layers and the role of anisotropy compared to giant MR in magnetic multilayers. For magnetic tunnel junctions the in-plane lattice constant and the interlayer distance at interfaces will be relaxed to determine the effects on tunneling. In addition, the surface band structures at electrode/barrier interfaces, determined by full potential methods, will be incorporated into the calculations of junction MR. %%% This project is co-funded by the Division of Materials Research and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, both within the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the International Division as a cooperative activity in materials sciences between the National Science foundation and the European Commission (NSF solicitation 01-105). The project involves the EC Research Training Network (RTN) on Computational Magnetoelectronics whose lead institutions include Daresbury Laboratory (United Kingdom), FZ Juelich (Germany), MSP-MPI Halle (Germany), CNRS Orsay (France), TU Vienna (Austria), University of Twente (Netherlands), Uppsala University (Sweden), Academy of Sciences - Budapest (Hungary) and Institute of Physics of Materials Brno (Czechia). This grant will enable the US research group at NYU to collaborate with members of the EC RTN. The NYU group is focused on analytic and model calculations in magnetoelectronics, whereas the EC expertise is in ab initio calculations of electronic structure and magnetic and transport properties of solids. ***