Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 22: Spin Dynamics / Spin Torque III

MA 22.10: Talk

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 12:00–12:15, H10

Ab initio calculation of the spin torque in all metallic spin valves and magnetic tunnel junctions — •Frank Freimuth, Daniel Wortmann, and Stefan Blügel — Institut für Festkörperforschung, & Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany

We present calculations of the current perpendicular to the plane (CPP) spin torque for the all metallic spin valves Co/Cu/Co, Fe/Ag/Fe and Fe/Au/Fe and for MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions. Compared to the Co/Cu/Co spin valve the Fe/Ag/Fe and Fe/Au/Fe spin valves are characterized by a much larger asymmetry of the angular dependence of the torque. In the case of Fe/Au/Fe we investigate the influence of spin-orbit coupling on the spin torque. Special attention is given to the dependence of the torque on the thicknesses of the free magnetic layer and the interlayer. For MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions we discuss the dependence of the spin torque on the magnetic lead material and the bias-dependence of the torque. Our calculations are based on an order-N implementation of the full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave method FLEUR (www.flapw.de) within the Green function embedding formalism.