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Origin of Giant Magnetoresistance: Bulk or Interface Scattering

1998; American Physical Society; Volume: 80; Issue: 19 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.80.4309

1092-0145

Peter Zahn, J. Binder, Ingrid Mertig, R. Zeller, P. H. Dederichs,

Theoretical and Computational Physics

Calculations of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) of Co/Cu (001) multilayers are presented. Starting from density functional theory the electronic structure of the multilayer is described by means of a new Green's function method. Scattering of superlattice wave functions at $\ensuremath{\delta}$-like scatterers is considered. It will be shown that due to the existence of quantum well and interface states in multilayers GMR is strongly affected by scattering centers at the interface. Results for a multilayer with a Cu thickness corresponding to the first antiferromagnetic maximum of the interlayer exchange coupling are discussed in detail.