INTERFACE ROUGHNESS EFFECTS IN THE GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE IN MAGNETIC MULTILAYERS

In-plane electronic transport in thin layered magnetic structures comp osed of two ferromagnetic films separated by a nonmagnetic spacer is a nalyzed theoretically in the Born approximation. Particular attention is paid to the role of interface roughness in the giant magnetoresista nce (GMR) effect. The analysis applies to self-affine interfaces descr ibed by the k-correlation model. Our results show that GMR is sensitiv e to the roughness exponent H (0 less than or equal to H less than or equal to 1) in a manner that depends on spin asymmetries for bulk and interfacial scattering. The limit of low electron concentration is als o considered. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.