The Origin of Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Break Junctions

Abstract

First-principles calculations of electron tunneling transport in Ni and Co break junctions reveal strong dependence of the conductance on the magnetization direction, an effect known as tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR). The origin of this phenomenon stems from resonant states localized in the electrodes near the junction break. The energy and broadening of these states is strongly affected by the magnetization orientation due to spin-orbit coupling, causing TAMR to be sensitive to bias voltage on a scale of a few mV. Our results bear a resemblance to recent experimental data and suggest that TAMR driven by resonant states is a general phenomenon typical for magnetic broken contacts and other experimental geometries where a magnetic tip is used to probe electron transport.

4 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Electronic transport in iron atomic contacts: from the infinite wire to realistic geometries
• Tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in Fe/GaAs/Au junctions: orbital effects
• Anisotropic magnetoresistance in ferromagnetic atomic-sized metal contacts
• Conductance fingerprints of non-collinear magnetic states in single atom contacts: a first-principles Wannier functions study
• Perspectives in spintronics: magnetic resonant tunneling, spin-orbit coupling, and GaMnAs