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Classical magnetoresistance (MR) in nonmagnetic metals are conventionally understood in terms of the Kohler rule, with violation usually viewed as anomalous electron transport, in particular, as evidence of non-Fermi liquid behavior. Measurement of the MR of Au films as a function of temperature and film thickness reveals a strong dependence on grain size distribution and clear violation of the Kohler rule. Using a model of random resistor network, we show that this result can be explained if the MR arises entirely from inhomogeneity due to grain boundary scattering and thermal activation of grain boundary atoms. Consequently, the Kohler rule should not be used to distinguish normal and anomalous electron transport in solids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heusler alloy Co2FeAl was employed as ferromagnetic layers in Co2FeAl (3 nm)/Ru (x nm)/Co2FeAl (5 nm) synthetic antiferromagnet structures. The experimental results show that the structure with a Ru thickness of 0.45 nm is strongly antiferromagnetic coupled, which is maintained after annealing at 150 °C for 1 h. The structure has a very low saturation magnetization Ms of 425 emu/cm3, a low switching field Hsw of 4.3 Oe, and a high saturation field Hs of 5257 Oe at room temperature, which are favorable for application in ultrahigh density magnetic read heads or other magnetic memory devices. Crystal structure study testifies that the as-deposited Co2FeAl film is in the B2 phase. Therefore, Heusler alloys can be used to fabricate synthetic antiferromagnetic and it is possible to make “all-Heusler” spin valves or magnetic tunneling junctions with better magnetic switching properties and high magnetoresistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of spin-polarized quasi-particle injection on the superconductivity of epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 composite thin films is systematically investigated. Different electrode configurations on the same specimen are designed to study the role of spin injection. It is found that the upper critical field and flux pinning potential are reduced by the spin injection, especially for the field parallel to ab-plane. The manipulation of superconductivity by the spin polarization orientations of injected quasi-particles possibly originates from the different suppressions on the superconducting pairing strength, which is considered to be related to the local antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in La1.85Sr0.15CuO4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a 3ω method for simultaneously measuring the specific heat and thermal conductivity of a rod- or filament-like specimen using a way similar to a four-probe resistance measurement. The specimen in this method needs to be electrically conductive and with a temperature-dependent resistance, for acting both as a heater to create a temperature fluctuation and as a sensor to measure its thermal response. With this method, we have successfully measured the specific heat and thermal conductivity of platinum wire specimens at cryogenic temperatures, and measured those thermal quantities of tiny carbon nanotube bundles some of which are only ∼10[sup -9] g in mass. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report room temperature ferromagnetism in boron-doped ZnO both experimentally and theoretically. The single phase Zn1-xBxO films deposited under high oxygen pressure by pulsed laser deposition show ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. The saturation magnetization increases monotonically from 0 to 1.5 emu/cm3 with the increasing boron component x from 0% to 6.8%. The first-principles calculations demonstrate that the ferromagnetism in the B-doped ZnO originates from the induced magnetic moment of oxygen atoms in the nearest neighbor sites to B-Zn vacancy pairs. The calculated total magnetic moment shows an increasing trend with the boron component which is consistent with experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we fabricated Co2FeAl films with perpendicular-to-plane magnetic anisotropy by cosputtering with terbium (Tb). The as-prepared (Tb+Co2FeAl) films (TCFA) consists of nanocrystalline L21 Co2FeAl and amorphous alloy of Tb(Co, Fe, and Al). The coercivity field (Hc) of the TCFA films is adjustable from 200 to 800 Oe. After annealing, the Hc decreases to 70 Oe. A perpendicularly magnetized spin valve with the TCFA films as free and reference layers shows a current-perpendicular-to-plane magnetoresistance of 1.8% at room temperature. Our result opens a way to fabricate perpendicularly magnetized full-Heusler alloys and makes it possible to realize faster and simple structured magnetic storage bits in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]