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Magnetoresistance

A new spin on magnets

Nature volume 404, pages 556–557 (2000)Cite this article

Just like photons propagating through space, electrons flowing through a crystalline metal travel in simple plane waves. Add sufficient disorder and those electrons are no longer free to fly. Rather they will diffuse from scatterer to scatterer, performing a random walk through the ‘dirty’ metal. At very low temperatures, near absolute zero, the phase of the electron becomes important and quantum interference effects manifest themselves. At the quantum level both the amplitude and phase of the electronic wavefunction are needed to describe the electron completely. On page 581 of this issue, Manyala et al .1 describe how these quantum interference effects not only dominate the behaviour of a metallic ferromagnet (a material similar to iron) at the relatively scorching temperature of liquid nitrogen, but might account for an entirely new mechanism behind the magnetic response of solids.

Electrons carry spin as well as charge. Apply a magnetic field and spin-up electrons acquire a different energy from spin-down electrons. The energy difference created by the spins, combined with quantum interference effects, leads to an electrical resistance that changes with the square root of the applied magnetic field. This effect, known as magnetoresistance, has attracted much interest because of its technological potential, for example in magnetic data storage. Many different materials have shown magnetoresistance that involves scattering of conduction electrons by magnetic electrons. For example, when a magnetic field is applied the scattering may be reduced, leading to negative magnetoresistance.

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Figure 1: Electrons diffusing through a disordered metal have more opportunity to interact.

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  1. Department of Physics and the James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, 5640 Ellis Avenue, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Thomas F. Rosenbaum

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  1. Thomas F. Rosenbaum
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Correspondence to Thomas F. Rosenbaum.

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Rosenbaum, T. A new spin on magnets. Nature 404, 556–557 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35007178

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