Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 14/06/1999 |
---|---|
<mark>Journal</mark> | Physical review letters |
Issue number | 24 |
Volume | 82 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Pages (from-to) | 4938-4941 |
Publication Status | Published |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
We predict that current perpendicular to the plane giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in a phase-coherent magnetic multilayer is suppressed when one of the contacts is superconducting. This is a consequence of a superconductivity-induced magnetoresistive effect, whereby the conductance of the ferromagnetically aligned state is drastically reduced by superconductivity. To demonstrate this effect, we compute the GMR ratio of clean (Cu/Co)(n)Cu and (Cu/Co)(n)Pb multilayers, described by an ab initio spd tight-binding Hamiltonian. By analyzing a simpler model with two orbitals per site, we also show that the suppression survives in the presence of elastic scattering by impurities.