Self-consistent treatment of nonequilibrium spin torques in magnetic multilayers

Asya Shpiro, Peter M. Levy, Shufeng Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is known that the transfer of spin angular momenta between current carriers and local moments occurs near the interface of magnetic layers when their moments are noncollinear. However, to determine the magnitude of the transfer, one should calculate the spin transport properties far beyond the interface regions. Based on the spin-diffusion equation, we present a self-consistent approach to evaluate the spin torque for a number of layered structures. One of the salient features is that the longitudinal and transverse components of spin accumulations are intertwined from one layer to the next, due to the presence of the much longer longitudinal spin-diffusion length and thus, the spin torque could be significantly amplified with respect to treatments which concentrate solely on the transport at the interface. We conclude that bare spin currents do not properly estimate the spin angular momentum transferred between the magnetic background; the spin transfer that occurs at interfaces should be self-consistently determined by embedding it in our globally diffuse transport calculations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)17
Number of pages1
JournalPhysical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Volume67
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Self-consistent treatment of nonequilibrium spin torques in magnetic multilayers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this