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The magnetic properties of exchange biased systems deposited on top of fullerene-based materials have been studied. An enhanced exchange bias field has been observed for Si/SiO2/C60/Co/Cu/Co/IrMn/Ta and Si/SiO2/FeC60/Co/Cu/Co/IrMn/Ta in comparison to a typical structure of Si/SiO2/Ta/Co/Cu/Co/IrMn/Ta. Here the magnetic properties of the devices are changed significantly with an organic underlayer or seed layer. The magnetic ordering is well maintained, and C60 seeding results in an exchange bias of (19.5 \pm 0.5) mT, some 7 mT higher than that of Ta seeded spin valves (12.5 \pm 0.5 mT). A combination of MOKE (magneto-optical Kerr effect), X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy have been used to characterize the materials and further understand the interactions between the Co and fullerene-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a numerical model of local and nonlocal transport properties in a lateral spin valve structure consisting of two magnetic electrodes in contact with a third perpendicular superconducting electrode. By considering the transport paths for a single electron incident at the local F/S interface--in terms of probabilities of crossed or local Andreev reflection, elastic cotunneling, or quasiparticle transport--we show that this leads to nonlocal charge imbalance. We compare this model with experimental data from an aluminum-permalloy (Al/Py) lateral spin valve geometry device and demonstrate the effectiveness of this simple approach in replicating experimental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have performed in situ transport measurements on CoFeB/AlO/Co spin-valve magnetic tunnel junctions during annealing up to 200 °C. For optimally oxidized junctions we observe a marked decrease in the parallel state junction resistance, which occurs at around 150 °C and continues throughout the anneal process until the temperature is reduced back below 150 °C. Spectroscopic measurements reveal a stronger bias dependence due to enhanced magnon-assisted tunneling, and show that features relating to weak fcc texture in the cobalt upper electrode fade after annealing at 200 °C. We attribute this to a possible amorphization of the cobalt electrode in close proximity to the barrier interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temperature dependence of the spin diffusion length typically reflects the scattering mechanism responsible for spin relaxation. Within nonmagnetic metals it is reasonable to expect the Elliot-Yafet mechanism to play a role and thus the temperature dependence of the spin diffusion length might be inversely proportional to resistivity. In lateral spin valves, measurements have found that at low temperatures the spin diffusion length unexpectedly decreases. By measuring the transport properties of lateral Py/Cu/Py spin valves, fabricated from Cu with magnetic impurities of <1 ppm and ~ 4 ppm, we extract a spin diffusion length which shows this suppression below 30 K only in the presence of the Kondo effect. We have calculated the spin-relaxation rate and isolated the contribution from magnetic impurities. We find the spin-flip probability of a magnetic impurity to be 34%. Our analysis demonstrates the dominant role of Kondo scattering in spin relaxation, even in low concentrations of order 1 ppm, and hence illustrates its importance to the reduction in spin diffusion length observed by ourselves and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in spin valves is current-independent, so the resistance of a device depends only on the relative orientation of the magnetic layers. In dual spin valves consisting of three ferromag-netic (FM) layers separated by nonmagnetic (NM) spacers (i.e., a FM1/NM/FM2/NM/FM1 ), GMR can be current-dependent if spin can accumulate in FM2 when outer FM 1 layers are aligned antiparallel. Currently the underlying physics is poorly understood, although spin accumulation in FM2 is likely to depend on the gradient in the density of states at the Fermi energy of the ferromagnet. To investigate this hypothesis, we have measured a series of dual spin valves with Ni1-xFex as FM2 layers of varying composition. We show that both the magnitude and sign of the nonlinear GMR depend strongly on the Fe content and thus on the band structure of the ferromagnet FM2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using scanning thermal microscopy, we have mapped the spatial distribution of temperatures in an operating nanoscale device formed from a magnetic injector, an Ag connecting wire, and a magnetic detector. An analytical model explained the thermal diffusion over the measured temperature range (2-300 K) and injector-detector separation (400-3000 nm). The characteristic diffusion lengths of the Peltier and Joule heat differ remarkably below 60 K, a fact that can be explained by the onset of ballistic phonon heat transfer in the substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the reversal of the bulk and interfacial magnetizations of the free layer of a spin valve using soft x-ray resonant magnetic scattering. By dusting the interface of the NiFe free layer with a few angströms of Co, we were able to distinguish between the interfacial and bulk magnetisms by tuning the x-ray photon energy. We measured hysteresis loops of reflected x-ray intensity at selected points in reciprocal space. We find no difference in the switching fields, showing that in transition metal ferromagnets, the exchange interactions are sufficiently strong to prevent a separate interfacial coercivity from arising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]