Interface resistance of disordered magnetic multilayers - art. no. 064407

We study the effect of intel face disorder on the spin-dependent interface resistances of Co/Cu, Fe/Cr, and Au/Ag multilayers using a newly developed method fur calculating transmission matrices from first-principles. The eff icient implementation using tight-binding linear-muffin-tin orbitals allows us to model interface disorder using large lateral supercells whereby spec ular and diffuse scattering are treated on an equal footing. Without introd ucing any free parameters, quantitative agreement with experiment is obtain ed. We predict that disorder, reduces the majority-spin interface resistanc e of Fe/Cr(100) multilayers by a factor 3.