Abstract
The temperature dependence of spin-polarized tunneling is investigated between 77 and 420 K for various ferromagnetic tunnel junctions. Both the junction resistance and the magnetoresistance decrease with increasing temperature The experimental results are successfully described by a model that includes two current contributions. The dominant one is elastic, spin-polarized tunneling between the two ferromagnetic electrodes, each with an electron polarization that decreases with due to thermally excited spin waves according to i.e., in the same way as the surface magnetization. A smaller second conductance is due to assisted, spin-independent tunneling which we find to be proportional to
- Received 12 May 1998
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.58.R2917
©1998 American Physical Society