'Ballistic' vs. 'Diffusive' Transport in Current-Induced Magnetization Switching

Published

December 21, 2007

Author(s)

N Theodoropoulou, Abhishek Sharma, W Pratt, J. Bass, Mark D. Stiles, J Xiao

Abstract

We test whether current-induced magnetization switching due to spin-transfer-torque in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic/ferromagnetic (F/N/F) trilayers changes significantly when scattering within the N-metal layers is changed from ballistic to diffusive. Here ballistic corresponds to a ratio r = λ/t = 3 for a Cu spacer layer, and diffusive to r = 0.4 for a CuGe alloy spacer layer, where λ is the mean-free-path in the N-layer of fixed thickness t = 10 nm. The average switching currents for the alloy spacer layer are only modestly larger than those for Cu. The best available model predicts a much greater sensitivity of the switching currents to diffuse scattering in the spacer layer than we see.

Citation

Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)

Volume

76

Issue

22

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

ballistic transport, Boltzmann equation, current-induced magnetization, diffusive transport, nanopillar, spin-transfer torque, spin-valve

Citation

Theodoropoulou, N. , Sharma, A. , Pratt, W. , Bass, J. , Stiles, M. and Xiao, J. (2007), 'Ballistic' vs. 'Diffusive' Transport in Current-Induced Magnetization Switching, Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics), [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=620018 (Accessed October 24, 2025)