Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 22: Transport: Poster Session

TT 22.12: Poster

Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 14:00–18:00, Poster B

Spin-dependent tunneling current in magnetic tunnel junctions — •Niko Sandschneider and Wolfgang Nolting — Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Physik, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany

The tunneling current through a hybrid structure where a confined nonmagnetic insulator is sandwiched between two ferromagnetic metals is calculated within the non-equilibrium Keldysh formalism. The metals are assumed to be band ferromagnets, such as Co, and are described by the single-band Hubbard model. Special emphasis is made to explain the tunneling current features in terms of the quasiparticle density of states of the materials. Also the relationship between the current and the inter-layer exchange coupling is discussed.

Furthermore we show how a generalization of the model presented here can be used to model current-induced switching of magnetization in a self-consistent way.