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Suppression of giant magnetoresistance by a superconducting contact

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>14/06/1999
<mark>Journal</mark>Physical review letters
Issue number24
Volume82
Number of pages4
Pages (from-to)4938-4941
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

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.