The influence of spin-orbit coupling and a current dependent potential on the residual resistivity of disordered magnetic alloys

It has been shown recently, for a number of various magnetic disordered all oy systems, that the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) may have an important influe nce on the isotropic residual resistivity and that it is the primary source of the galvano-magnetic properties spontaneous magnetoresistance anisotrop y (SMA) and anomalous Hall resistivity (AHR). Here it is demonstrated that- in contrast to many other spin-orbit induced phenomena-all these findings s tem from the part of the spin-orbit coupling that gives rise to a mixing of the two spin sub-systems. In line with this result it is shown that inclus ion of a current dependent potential within a calculation of the underlying electronic structure hardly affects the transport properties if the corres ponding magnetic vector potential does not lead to a mixing of the spin sub -systems. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.