Ballistic vs Diffusive Transport in Current-Induced Magnetization Switching

Abstract

We test whether current-induced magnetization switching due to spin-transfer-torque in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic/ferromagnetic (F/N/F) trilayers changes significantly when scattering within the N-metal layers is changed from ballistic to diffusive. Here ballistic corresponds to a ratio r = lambda/t greater than or equal to 3 for a Cu spacer layer, and diffusive to r = lambda/t less than or equal to 0.4 for a CuGe alloy spacer layer, where lambda is the mean-free-path in the N-layer of fixed thickness t = 10 nm. The average switching currents for the alloy spacer layer are only modestly larger than those for Cu. The best available model predicts a much greater sensitivity of the switching currents to diffuse scattering in the spacer layer than we see.

11 pages, including 1 figure

References in corpus (14)

• Finite-element theory of transport in ferromagnet-normal metal systems
• Non-collinear Magnetoelectronics
• Current-Driven Magnetic Excitations in Permalloy-Based Multilayer Nanopillars
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• Current Induced Order Parameter Dynamics: Microscopic Theory Applied to Co/Cu/Co spin valves
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• Current-Induced Magnetization Switching in Permalloy-based Nanopillars with Cu, Ag, and Au

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Spin transport parameters in metallic multilayers determined by ferromagnetic resonance measurements of spin pumping
• Spin-transfer torque in disordered weak ferromagnets
• Spin-Diffusion Lengths in Dilute Cu(Ge) and Ag(Sn) Alloys
• Effect of spin diffusion on spin torque in magnetic nanopillars