Multiscale approach to spin transport in magnetic multilayers

Simone Borlenghi, Valentin Rychkov, Cyril Petitjean, Xavier Waintal

Published 2011-01-25, updated 2011-08-20Version 2

This article discusses two dual approaches to spin transport in magnetic multilayers: a direct, purely quantum, approach based on a Tight-Biding model (TB) and a semiclassical approach (Continuous Random Matrix Theory, CRMT). The combination of both approaches provides a systematic way to perform multi-scales simulations of systems that contain relevant physics at scales larger (spin accumulation, spin diffusion...) and smaller (specular reflexions, tunneling...) than the elastic mean free paths of the layers. We show explicitly that CRMT and TB give consistent results in their common domain of applicability.