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| Hauptseite > Publikationsdatenbank > Electronic Structure of Ferromagnet-Insulator Interfaces: Fe/MgO and Co/MgO |
| Hauptseite > Publikationsdatenbank > Electronic Structure of Ferromagnet-Insulator Interfaces: Fe/MgO and Co/MgO |
| Dissertation / PhD Thesis/Book | PreJuSER-58942 |
2007
Forschungszentrum Jülich Gmbh Zentralbibliothek, Verlag
Jülich
ISBN: 978-3-89336-493-0
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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/2634
Abstract: Half a century of magnetic data storage has changed the world. A constantly increasing storage density has provided the basis for exciting innovations. In nowadays life, we take advantage of small portable devices like laptops or iPods providing hard disc capacities of up to some hundreds of Gigabytes. This stunning technological progress has become possible by experimental achievements that are intimately connected to the basic research on the magnetism of thin films and surfaces. Initially, this research was driven by scientific curiosity to understand the quantum mechanical processes which are governing the magnetic behavior in confined magnetic systems. The results had a direct impact on the magnetic data storage, by improving the materials itself and developing novel storage functionalities. The last decade has witnessed further progress in information technology, which was initialized by two fundamental discoveries being closely connected to the magnetism in ultrathin magnetic layers. The discovery of the phenomenon of interlayer exchange coupling in 1986 by P. Grünberg and Co-workers [1] and the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect in 1988, by the groups of P. Grünberg and A. Fert [2, 3] mark the advent of the field of spin-based electronics (‘spintronics’), in which magnetism and solid state electronics are joining to exploit spin-dependent transport processes [4]. The GMR effect is based on the arrangement of two successive magnetic layers, separated by a very thin non-magnetic layer. The relative orientation of the magnetization in the adjacent layers can be easily switched by applying a weak magnetic field, with the magnitude of the electric resistance being affected in an disparately way: An electric current can flow rather freely, if the layer magnetization is oriented parallel, while a high resistance results if they are antiparallel. The GMR effect in magnetic multilayers can be studied in so-called spin-valves, in which the direction of the magnetic moment of an magnetic reference layer is fixed by the phenomenon of exchange bias. Today, the field of spin-based electronics drives the progress in magnetism and provides the basis for novel electronic functionalities that in part are already conversed into technology. The GMR effect, for instance, has completely revolutionized the magnetic recording industry: the very high sensitivity of GMR-based read heads has allowed a reduction of the bit size, and hence an enormous increase in the storage capacity of magnetic hard-disk drives. Now, about twenty years after its discovery, all hard-disks in computers are equipped with read heads based on the GMR effect. In the two decades since the discovery of GMR, the magnitude of the GMR signal in spin valve structures has changed very little. The resistance of such structures is [...]
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