Diamagnetic Effects, Spin Dependent Fermi Surfaces, and the Giant Magnetoresistance in Metallic Multilayers

Abstract

We study the role of diamagnetic effects on the transport properties of metallic magnetic multilayers to elucidate whether they can explain the Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) effect observed in those systems. Realistic Fermi surface topologies in layered ferromagnets are taken into account, with the possibilities of different types of orbits depending on the electron spin. Both configurations, with ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic couplings between magnetic layers, are considered and the transmission coefficient for scattering at the interface boundary is modelled to include magnetic and roughness contributions. We assume that scattering processes conserve the electron spin, due to large spin diffusion lengths in multilayer samples. Scattering from the spacer mixes different orbit topologies in a way similar to magnetic `breakdown' phenomena. For antiferromagnetic coupling, majority and minority spins are interchanged from one magnetic layer to the next. Cyclotron orbits are also traveled in opposite directions, producing a compensation-like effect that yields a huge GMR, particularly for closed orbits. For open orbits, one may get the `inverse' magnetoresistance effect along particular directions.