Electrical transport properties of bulk Ni${}_c$Fe${}_{1-c}$ alloys and related spin-valve systems

Abstract

Within the Kubo-Greenwood formalism we use the fully relativistic, spin-polarized, screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method together with the coherent-potential approximation for layered systems to calculate the resistivity for the permalloy series Ni${}_c$Fe${}_{1-c}$. We are able to reproduce the variation of the resistivity across the entire series; notably the discontinuous behavior in the vicinity of the structural phase transition from bcc to fcc. The absolute values for the resistivity are within a factor of two of the experimental data. Also the giant magnetoresistance of a series of permalloy-based spin-valve structures is estimated; we are able to reproduce the trends and values observed on prototypical spin-valve structures.

6 pages, ReVTeX + 4 figures (Encapsulated Postscript), submitted to PRB

References in corpus (1)

• Electrical Resistivity of a Thin Metallic Film