| Issue |
EPL
Volume 79, Number 6, September 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 67004 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/79/67004 | |
| Published online | 23 August 2007 | |
Quantum mechanics of spin transfer in coupled electron-spin chains
1
Department of Physics, University of Alberta - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2J1
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1
Received:
21
April
2007
Accepted:
31
July
2007
The manner in which spin-polarized electrons interact with a magnetized thin film is currently described by a semi-classical approach. This in turn provides our present understanding of the spin transfer, or spin torque phenomenon. However, spin is an intrinsically quantum-mechanical quantity. Here, we make the first strides towards a fully quantum-mechanical description of spin transfer through spin currents interacting with a Heisenberg-coupled spin chain. Because of quantum entanglement, this requires a formalism based on the density matrix approach. Our description illustrates how individual spins in the chain time-evolve as a result of spin transfer.
PACS: 72.25.-b – Spin polarized transport / 73.23.Ad – Ballistic transport / 73.63.-b – Electronic transport in nanoscale materials and structures
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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