A Circuit Model for Domain Walls in Ferromagnetic Nanowires: Application to Conductance and Spin Transfer Torques
arXiv:cond-mat/0406076 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.70.174424
Abstract
We present a circuit model to describe the electron transport through a domain wall in a ferromagnetic nanowire. The domain wall is treated as a coherent 4-terminal device with incoming and outgoing channels of spin up and down and the spin-dependent scattering in the vicinity of the wall is modelled using classical resistances. We derive the conductance of the circuit in terms of general conductance parameters for a domain wall. We then calculate these conductance parameters for the case of ballistic transport through the domain wall, and obtain a simple formula for the domain wall magnetoresistance which gives a result consistent with recent experiments. The spin transfer torque exerted on a domain wall by a spin-polarized current is calculated using the circuit model and an estimate of the speed of the resulting wall motion is made.
arXiv comment10 pages, 5 figures; submitted to Physical Review B
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