Abstract
The era of spin electronics began almost exactly ten years ago with the discovery [1], [2] that the electric current in a magnetic multilayer consisting of a sequence of thin magnetic layers separated by equally thin non-magnetic metallic layers is strongly influenced by the relative orientation of the magnetizations of the magnetic layers. In fact, it is found that the resistance of the magnetic multilayer is low when the magnetizations of all the magnetic layers are parallel (Fig. 4.1a) but it becomes much higher when the magnetizations of the neighbouring magnetic layers are ordered antiparallel (Fig. 4.1b).
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Mathon, J. (2001). Phenomenological Theory of Giant Magnetoresistance. In: Ziese, M., Thornton, M.J. (eds) Spin Electronics. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 569. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45258-3_4
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