SPIN-FLIP CONTRIBUTION TO THE INPLANE CONDUCTIVITY OF MAGNETIC MULTILAYERS

The ''in-plane'' conductivity of magnetic multilayers is calculated wi thin the semiclassical approximation. The band structure is obtained w ith a tight-binding Hubbard Hamiltonian solved in the Hartree-Fock app roximation. Once self-consistency is reached, the spin-orbit coupling term is added and a further diagonalization is performed. As it is wel l-known, quantum well states appear in the band structure of superlatt ices. By calculating the conductivity as a function of the Fermi energ y we find that there is a considerable influence of these quantum well states if their energy is close to the Fermi level when the spin-orbi t coupling is taken into account. Copyright (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.