Magnetic Moment Softening and Domain Wall Resistance in Ni Nanowires

Authors

John D. Burton, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Renat F. Sabirianov, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Sitaram S. Jaswal, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
O. N. Mryasov, Seagate Research, Pittsburgh, PA

Date of this Version

8-2006

Comments

Published in Physical Review Letters 97, 077204 (2006); DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.077204; Copyright © 2006 The American Physical Society. Used by permission. http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v97/e077204

Abstract

We perform ab initio calculations of the electronic structure and conductance of atomic-size Ni nanowires with domain walls only a few atomic lattice constants wide. We show that the hybridization between noncollinear spin states leads to a reduction of the magnetic moments in the domain wall resulting in the enhancement of the domain wall resistance. Experimental studies of the magnetic moment softening may be feasible with modern techniques such as scanning tunneling spectroscopy.