Ballistic Anisotropic Magnetoresistance

Authors

Julian P. Velev, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Renat F. Sabirianov, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Sitaram Jaswal, University of NebraskaFollow
Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

4-1-2005

Comments

Published in Physical Review Letters 94, 127203(2005). URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v94/e127203 doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.127203
Copyright 2005 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

Electronic transport in ferromagnetic ballistic conductors is predicted to exhibit ballistic anisotropic magnetoresistance—a change in the ballistic conductance with the direction of magnetization. This phenomenon originates from the effect of the spin-orbit interaction on the electronic band structure which leads to a change in the number of bands crossing the Fermi energy when the magnetization direction changes. We illustrate the significance of this phenomenon by performing ab initio calculations of the ballistic conductance in ferromagnetic Ni and Fe nanowires which display a sizable ballistic anisotropic magnetoresistance when magnetization changes direction from parallel to perpendicular to the wire axis.