American Physical Society, Physical Review B (Condensed Matter), 10(64), 2001
DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.64.104434
Full text: Download
The current through ferromagnetic single-electron transistors (SET’s) is considered. Using path integrals the linear-response conductance is formulated as a function of the tunnel conductance versus quantum conductance and the temperature versus Coulomb charging energy. The magnetoresistance of ferromagnet–normal-metal–ferromagnet (F-N-F) SET’s is almost independent of the Coulomb charging energy and is only reduced when the transport dwell time is longer than the spin-flip relaxation time. In all-ferromagnetic (F-F-F) SET’s with negligible spin-flip relaxation time the magnetoresistance is calculated analytically at high temperatures and numerically at low temperatures. The F-F-F magnetoresistance is enhanced by higher-order tunneling processes at low temperatures in the “off” state when the induced charges vanish. In contrast, in the “on” state near resonance the magnetoresistance ratio is a nonmonotonic function of the inverse temperature.