Impurity-assisted interlayer exchange coupling across a tunnel barrier

Localized impurity or defect states in the insulating barrier layer separating two ferromagnetic films affect dramatically the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC), making it significantly stronger compared to perfect barriers. We demonstrate that the impurity-assisted IEC becomes antiferromagnetic if...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2005-01, Vol.94 (2), p.026806-026806, Article 026806
Main Authors: Zhuravlev, M Ye, Tsymbal, E Y, Vedyayev, A V
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Localized impurity or defect states in the insulating barrier layer separating two ferromagnetic films affect dramatically the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC), making it significantly stronger compared to perfect barriers. We demonstrate that the impurity-assisted IEC becomes antiferromagnetic if the energy of the impurity states matches the Fermi energy and that the coupling strength decreases with temperature. These results explain available experimental data on the IEC across tunnel barriers.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.94.026806