Finite-element method study for the spin-polarized transport in a hybrid spin valve

Abstract The giant magnetoresistance (GMR) has been observed to increase with the number of layers in a hybrid spin valve. This study shows the increase of the spin-dependent scattering for the current perpendicular to the plane (CPP) geometry with the number of layers; thus, the increase of the CPP-GMR with the number of layers by a finite element method (FEM). The CPP-GMR is evaluated by using the three spin-dependent conductance based on the Landauer–Buttiker formalism. The transmission probabilities are calculated by using a transfer-matrix method. The conduction band structure is determined by extracting the free electron model parameters from first-principles data.