Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV XIV

PV XIV: Prize Talk

Thursday, March 29, 2007, 13:00–13:45, H1

Spin Transfer Phenomena in Layered Magnetic Structures — •Peter Grünberg — Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany --- Träger der Stern-Gerlach-Medaille

After Stern- Gerlach's discovery of directional quantization it was Mott who formulated the ``two current model'' which considers the total current in a ferromagnet as formed by two currents, one of electrons with spin up and one with spin down. Spin flip processes are assumed to be rare. During the last decades a range of experiments has become known which are also based on spin dependent transfer of electrons from one ferromagnetic film to another across a nonferromagnetic interlayer. For the ferromagnetic films generally only metals are considered, whereas the interlayer material can be metallic, semiconducting or insulating. Various processes like elastic or inelastic electron scattering, reflection and/or tunnelling can occur during the transition, which depend on the orientation of the electron spin with respect to the local magnetization. Due to this, oscillatory interlayer exchange coupling (IEC), Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR), current induced magnetic switching (CIMS) and spin injection is observed when the interlayer is metallic. For insulating and semiconducting interlayers nonoscillatory IEC, tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and recently also CIMS has been observed. Applications are mainly in the area of information technology and sensors for position and motion.