https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e20020020
Modeling of the current lines in discontinuous metal/insulator multilayers
1
CEA/Grenoble, Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la
Matière Condensée, SP2M/NM, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
2
Moscow
Lomonosov University, Department of Physics, Moscow, 119699, Russian
Federation
Corresponding author: a fernult@cea.fr
Received:
9
October
2001
Published online: 15 January 2002
Discontinuous magnetic metal/insulator multilayers are formed of equally spaced layers of magnetic particles embedded in an insulating matrix. Their electronic transport properties result from spin-polarized electron tunneling and Coulomb blockade effect. The current-in-plane (CIP) and current-perpendicular-to plane (CPP) resistances change by several orders of magnitude when the thicknesses of the metallic or insulating layers are varied. Calculations of the shape of the current lines in these multilayers are presented. It is shown that pure CIP or CPP transport occur in these systems only when the CIP or CPP resistances are very different in magnitude. If the two resistances are of the same order of magnitude, then the measured transport properties in both geometries are a combination of CIP and CPP transport.
PACS: 73.40.Rw – Metal-insulator-metal structures / 73.40.Gk – Tunneling / 73.61.-r – Electrical properties of specific thin films
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2002
