Giant magnetoresistance in magnetic nanostructures

Abstract

Since its discovery in magnetic multilayers, the giant magnetoresistance has become one major research topic in both applied and pure magnetism. At first, new theories had to be devised to explain the oscillating indirect exchange coupling and to understand how spin-dependent transport properties give rise to the giant magnetoresistance. Also, because the magnetic multilayer where, at the time, a new class of materials, a lot of attention has been devoted to the study of their structural properties. In this paper, we review some experimental results and theoretical models on GMR in magnetic multilayers. Then, we present an overview of the giant magnetoresistance in new nanostructures - granular alloys and hybrid systems - with magnetic entities in the form of clusters instead of layers.