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Spintronics in metallic multilayers, composed of ferromagnetic (F) and non-magnetic (N) metals, grew out of two complementary discoveries. The first, Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR), refers to a change in multilayer resistance when the relative orientation of magnetic moments in adjacent F-layers is altered by an applied magnetic field. The second, Spin-Transfer-Torque (STT), involves a change in the relative orientation of F-layer moments by an electrical current. This novel physical phenomenon offers unprecedented spatial and temporal control over the magnetic state of a ferromagnet and has tremendous potential in a broad range of technologies, including magnetic memory and recording. Because of its small size (<10nm), point contact is a very efficient probe of electrical transport properties in extremely small sample volumes yet inaccessible with other techniques. We have observed the point-contact excitations in magnetic multilayers at room temperature and extended the capabilities of our point-contact technique to include the sensitivity to wavelengths of the current-induced spin waves. Recently MacDonald and coworkers have predicted that similar to ferromagnetic multilayers, the magnetic state of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) system can affect its transport properties and result in antiferromagnetic analogue of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) = AGMR; while high enough electrical current density can affect the magnetic state of the system via spin-transfer-torque effect. We show that a high density dc current injected from a point contact into an exchange-biased spin valve (EBSV) can systematically change the exchange bias, increasing or decreasing it depending on the current direction. This is the first evidence for current-induced effects on magnetic moments in antiferromagnetic (FeMn or IrMn) metals. We searched for AGMR in multilayers containing different combinations of AFM=FeMn and F=CoFe layers. At low currents, no magnetoresistance (MR) was observed in any samples suggesting that no AGMR is present in these samples. In samples containing F-layers, high current densities sometimes produced a small positive MR – largest resistance at high fields. For a given contact resistance, this MR was usually larger for thicker F-layers, and for a given current, it was usually larger for larger contact resistances (smaller contacts). We tentatively attribute this positive MR to suppression at high currents of spin accumulation induced around and within the F-layers. / text

Orientador: Guillermo Gerardo Cabrera Oyarzun / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-24T18:53:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CorreaJunior_Clovis_M.pdf: 2475896 bytes, checksum: c134096367f5dc832f4c32ec8a9e224b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Nesta dissertação de mestrado são descritas as características fundamentais dos condutores mesoscópicos, e as origens e propriedades das várias fontes de ruído em condutores. Primeiramente, descrevemos o ruído com distintos métodos e enfatizamos as propriedades de cada tipo de ruído. Em seguida, apresentamos a abordagem da matriz de espalhamento para condutores com coerência de fase, a qual permite-nos tratar as propriedades de transporte de forma unificada. Estudamos um modelo proposto para descrever as propriedades de transporte de nanofios e nanocontatos dos metais magnéticos de transição. É assumido que os orbitais de condução são do tipo s, o que permite a existência de dois canais de condução devido ao spin. Da mesma forma, consideramos os orbitais d como fontes de momentos de dipolos magnéticos locais. O modelo é aplicado ao caso de nanocontatos constituídos de dois átomos, os quais estão acoplados a dois eletrodos magnéticos. Usando um pequeno campo externo, é possível controlar os estados de polarização dos eletrodos: paralelamente e anti-paralelamente. Nesse nanocontato, são estudados as propriedades do coe½ciente de transmissão, da condutância, do ruído shot quântico, do fator de Fano e da magnetoresistência / Abstract: This dissertation describes the fundamental caracteristics of mesoscopic conductors, and the origins and properties of the sources of noise in conductors. Firstly, we describe the noise through different methods and emphasize the properties of each kind of noise. In the following, we present the scattering approach for coherent phase conductors, which allows us to get the transport properties from a unified picture. It is studied a particular model to describe the transport properties of magnetic transsition metal nanowires and nanocontacts. It is assumed that conduction orbitals are s-like, with the occurrence of only two conductions channel due to spin. In turn, d-like orbitals are sources of local magnetic moments. The model is applied to a simple nanocontact built of two atoms, which are coupled to two magnetic electrodes. Using small external fields, one can handle the polarization state of the electrods: in parallel or antiparallel alignment. From that nanocontact, we investigate the properties of the transmission coe°cient, the conductance, the quantum shot noise, the Fano factor and the magnetoresistance / Mestrado / Física da Matéria Condensada / Mestre em Física