FERROMAGNETIC METALS:

Metals, however, can be described as delocalized electrons filling energy bands. In this case, the
exchange interaction breaks spin degeneracy and the bands are split into spin-up and spin-down bands
(Figure) One set of bands (e.g. spin-up) will have a lower energy and will therefore have more electrons,
leading to a total net spin. This simple model for magnetic metals is known as the Stoner model and
materials exhibiting this variety of ferromagnetism are known as Stoner ferromagnets. The equilibrium
magnetization of that material is then | ~ M| = (n↑ −n↓) (−γ) S where ni is the number density of spin
type i. This produces a metallic ferromagnet such as Feor Ni. In these metals different spin directions can
have different conduction rates,scattering rates and Fermi surfaces, and so electron transport through
such materials can be heavily spin-dependent. This will become important when discussing running
currents through metallic ferromagnets [14, 2].

O’Handley, R. C. Modern Magnetic Materials. John Wiley and Sons, (2000).

Marder, M. Condensed Matter Physics. Wiley-Interscience, (2000).

Spin torque dynamics

Stiles, M. D. and Zangwill, A. Phys. Rev. B 66, 014407 (2002).

Slonczewski, J. C. J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 247(3), 324–338 (2002).

Microscopic Mechanisms of Spin Transfer

Spin-transfer-torque arises from several microscopic mechanisms. All of the mechanisms involve spin
dependent scattering processes, but the various scattering processes can be physically different. These
processes are described in greater detail in [45].

The first mechanism is spin transmission (also known as spin filtering). In this process, spins entering the
magnetic material in an applied current are polarized along some axis. The spins exiting the material
must be polarized according the band structure, i.e. polarized along the direction with a higher density
of states at the Fermi surface (. 1This is along the direction of magnetization for the transition metal
ferromagnets: Ni, Fe, Co.)It may be different for other metals. This means that some component of spin
must either be absorbed by the material or reflected at the surface. The reflected spin component
enters the other magnetic layer with the same effect. Any absorbed spin component must be
transferred to the bulk conduction spins, effectively applying a torque to the bulk magnetization. Figure
3.5 illustrates the basics of this process. The extra reflection processes when the layers are aligned
differently also add to the classical resistance, which is the basis of GMR. This process requires the metal
between the two ferro- magnetic layers not to change the spin polarization significantly, so a material
with a large spin-diffusion length (the length over which an electron retains its spin polarization when
moving through the material) must be chosen. Copper is such a material which also has a large
conductivity, so it is often chosen as the intermediate material. Another process is spin rotation, where
deferent components of the incoming electron wave-vector have different spin-dependent reflection
rates at the interface. This allows for a spins to be preferentially reflected based on the local electron
density of states.Spin precession is the final spin-torque mechanism. In this process the wave vectors
themselves are different for spin-up and spin-down electrons, corresponding to one spin direction
moving faster through the material and effectively creating a spatially-and time-varying phase of the
average spin inside the material. The net effect can be an average torque on the magnetization. The sum
total of these mechanisms gives rise to the total spin-transfer-torque on a ferromagnet. For simple
models the contributions can be calculated directly, but for real structures the average spin-torque
must, in general, be experimentally measured. Other, probably smaller, effects may also appear.

[48] Kiselev, S. I. et al. Nature 425, 380 (2003).

[49] Rippard, W. H. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 027201 (2004).

[50] Boone, C. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 167601 (2009).

[51] Krivorotov, I. N. et al. Phys. Rev. B 77, 054440 (2008).

[52] Krivorotov, I. N. et al. Phys. Rev. B 76, 024418 (2007).

3.6 Spin Pumping

A predicted, but poorly studied, effect of spin-torque is its inverse process,

known as spin pumping. Just as a spin-polarized current can excite magnetic motion,

so can magnetic motion radiate spin-polarized current [59, 60].

In this scenario, a metallic ferromagnetic layer is surrounded by two normal

metals. When the ferromagnetic layer undergoes a change of magnetization (as can

be excited by field or spin-polarized current), spin-polarized current will flow out from

the ferromagnet into the normal metallic layers. The current can then leak back into

the ferromagnet and add to the total torque [59, 60].

The effect of this is to renormalize the Gilbert damping constant, gyromagnetic

ratio, and possibly the magnetization5

[59].

Spin-torque is becoming a well-studied phenomenon that may prove useful for

future device applications. Research is ongoing to study more carefully the exact

functional form of the torque and its dependence on angle. The near future holds

promise for the field in terms of experimental research.

[59] Tserkovnyak, Y., Brataas, A., and Bauer, G. E. Phys. Rev. B 66, 224404 (2002).

[60] Governale, M., Taddei, F., and Fazio, R. Phys. Rev. B 68, 155324 (2003).