Effects of Domain Wall on Electronic Transport Properties in Mesoscopic Wire of Metallic Ferromagnets

Gen Tatara

Published 1999-03-29, updated 1999-04-06Version 3

We study the effect of the domain wall on electronic transport properties in wire of ferromagnetic 3$d$ transition metals based on the linear response theory. We considered the exchange interaction between the conduction electron and the magnetization, taking into account the scattering by impurities as well. The effective electron-wall interaction is derived by use of a local gauge transformation in the spin space. This interaction is treated perturbatively to the second order. The conductivity contribution within the classical (Boltzmann) transport theory turns out to be negligiblly small in bulk magnets, due to a large thickness of the wall compared with the fermi wavelength. It can be, however, significant in ballistic nanocontacts, as indicated in recent experiments. We also discuss the quantum correction in disordered case where the quantum coherence among electrons becomes important. In such case of weak localization the wall can contribute to a decrease of resistivity by causing dephasing. At lower temperature this effect grows and can win over the classical contribution, in particular in wire of diameter $L_{\perp}\lesssim \ell_{\phi}$, $\ell_{\phi}$ being the inelastic diffusion length. Conductance change of the quantum origin caused by the motion of the wall is also discussed.