MAGNETORESISTANCE

MAGNETORESISTANCE
Change of a
material's
resistivity
with the
application
of magnetic
field.
 types

Positive Negative

Ordinary Anisotropic
Magnetoresistance Magnetoresistance
(AMR)

Giant Magnetoresistance
(GMR)

Colossal
Magnetoresistance
(CMR)

Tunnel
Magnetoresistance (TMR)
Positive MR:
Resistance increases with increase in magnetic field.
Classically, the MR effect depends on both the strength of
the applied magnetic field, and the relative orientation of
the magnetic field with respect to the current.

Negative MR:
• Resistance decreases with increase in magnetic field.
• Quantum mechanically, The resistance of the material is determined by the
scattering processes to which the electrons are subject.
 ORDINARY MAGNETORESISTANCE

Lorentz force acting on the charge carriers  increase of the resistance in an

applied magnetic field.
All metals have an inherent ordinary magnetoresistance.
Magnetoresistance proportional to H2
Can be very large when ρois very small  pure single crystal at low
temperature
The change in resistivity, is positive for both magnetic field parallel and
transverse to the current direction.
ANISOTROPIC
MAGNETORESISTANCE
• Electrical resistance depends on the angle between the direction of
electric current and direction of magnetization.
• The effect arises from the simultaneous action of magnetization and
spin-orbit interaction.
• The net effect (in most materials) is that the electrical resistance has
maximum value when the direction of current is parallel to the applied
magnetic field than when it is perpendicular.
 GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE
• It is a quantum mechanical effect based on spin
dependent scattering.
• Large change in electrical resistance induced by the
application of magnetic field to thin films.
• Thin films composed of alternate ferromagnetic and
non magnetic layers.
• thickness of the films must be less than the mean free
path ofthe electrons.
• . The conduction electrons are divided into two
classes: those whose spin is parallel to the local
magnetization and those whose spin is antiparallel.
• The effect is observed as a significant change in the electrical
resistance depending on whether the magnetization of adjacent
ferromagnetic layers are in a parallel or an antiparallel alignment.
• The overall resistance is relatively low for parallel alignment and
relatively high for antiparallel alignment.
• The magnetization direction can be controlled, for example, by
applying an external magnetic field.
 MAGNETIC SUPERLATTICES
 Alternate layers of ferromagnetic material will naturally align with
opposite magnetization
 All electrons coming in will scatter since they’ll have opposite spin
from magnetization in some region

Ferromagnetic material with Non-ferromagnetic material

magnetization in direction of turquoise spacer
arrow
 MAGNETIC SUPERLATTICE IN FIELD
 If an external field is present, ferromagnetic layers will all align with
external field
 Only half of the electrons coming in will scatter maximally, those with
spin opposite external field

Externally applied
magnetic field
 TUNNEL MAGNETORESISTANCE
• quantum mechanical phenomenon.
• Also known as spin dependent tunneling.
• Occurs in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)
• It is a component consisting of two ferromagnets
separated by a thin insulator (typically a few nanometers),
electrons can tunnel from one ferromagnet into the other.
Spin of electrons is conserved in this process.
 COLOSSAL MAGNETORESISTANCE
• The term colossal means extremely large due to the huge effects observed of
the order = ∆R/R(H) 125,000%.
• The resistivity of the material undergoes a low temperature transition from an
insulating to a metallic behaviour.
• Mostly manganese based perovskite oxides Lal-xMxMn03+8 (M = Ca, Sr) show
this behaviour and largest effects have been observed for x=O.33.
• 95% reduction has been achieved at room temperature.
•

• Mn in the MnO planes are aligned ferromagnetically along a-b plane

• Antiferromagnetic order is in planes along c axis.
• The application of field switches the ordering of Mn ions along the c axis, so
that all of the Mn ions are magnetized in the same direction.
In the CMR materials, conduction occurs by hopping (basically by
exchanging Mn3+_Mn4+ pair to a Mn4+ _Mn3+ pair), and not by
metallic conduction.
 APPLICATION OF GMR
• Hard Disk Drive
• Old (1956): size of two refrigerators and
. stored only 5 Megabit characters in a stack
of 50 discs.
• IBM introduced the disk drives with the
thin magnetoresistive heads.
• Now: largest HDD – Samsung PM1633a
(16TB)
 READ HEAD
• The head is located at the end of the
actuator arm and it is a part of the
slider hover at a close distance of
about 10 – 100 nm from the medium.
• the actuators provide a means of
moving the head/slider from one track
to another and produce motions to
retain the head in the center of the
track.
• The head consists of a ring of
magnetic material with a coil of wire
wrapped on the core. The coil is
connected to the channel electronics
 WRITING PROCESS
• Receives data to be stored from the computer, after
some processing, generates the currents in circuits
called write drivers.
• The write driver supplies current to the head coil.
• The coil current results in magnetization of the
"core" of the head.
• Then the magnetic field spreads out in the gap
between the head and disk.
• The field from the head reaches the medium and
magnetizes it in one of the two possible directions.
• The current in the coils is changed depending on the
changes in the data and coding rules.
• During the reading process, the write drivers are
typically switched off and virtually isolated from the
head coil.
 READING
• As the head passes near the recorded
medium within a reasonable height, the
fringe field from the magnetic pole enters
the core and the core of the head becomes
magnetized.
• The direction of magnetization of the core
will certainly depend on the direction of
the magnetization of the medium.
• The change in magnetization in the core
results in a voltage across the head coil.
 APPLICATION OF AMR

• Traffic sensors
Uses the phenomenon of anisotropic
magnetoresistance to report about the appearance of
vehicles on the basis of Earth's local magnetic field
distortion caused by them passing.
The system is based on detectors that measure
parameters of the magnetic field in their vicinity.
They are mounted in the roadway at intersections
equipped with traffic lights. As a vehicle
approaches, the magnetic field around the detector
is disrupted, which is detected by an electronic
sensor.
HALL EFFECT
Discovery
• Observed in 1879
• Edwin Herbert Hall
• Discovered 18 years before the electron

Production of a potential
difference across an electrical
conductor when a magnetic field
is applied in a direction
perpendicular to that of the flow
of current.
 If magnetic flux is not applied, the
current flows straight.
 if magnetic flux is applied, a Lorentz
force proportional to the magnetic
flux density will deflect the current
path, the current flows through the
plate for a longer distance, causing the
resistance to be increased.
Lorentz force (F) = q V x B
 EXPERIMENT: To observe the phenomenon of
magnetoresistance in a semiconductor and study the magnetic field
dependence of the transverse magnetoresistance of a given
semiconductor sample (germanium).
APPARATUS:
Electromagnet:

Magnetoresistance setup (Four probe

Arrangement): Two outer probes for supplying the
constant current to the sample and two inner probes
for measuring the voltage developed across these probes.
Digital Gauss meter:

Hall Probe

Sample: Ge Crystal (n-type) dimensions : 10 x 10 x 0.5mm

Constant Current Power Supply

 HALL PROBE
Consists of a small slab of
semi-conductor material (InAs)

Used to measure the magnetic flux

density

Current passes from one end of the

slab to the other and the voltage on
each edge of the slab is the same
when no magnetic field is present
• .

If a magnetic field is now applied the top to

bottom surfaces of the slab, a voltage appears
across the sides of the slab, which is directly
proportional to the magnetic flux density.

Indium arsenide (InAs) produces relatively

large Hall voltages and led to the wide-spread
use of the Hall effect in science and industry.
 FORMULA USED:
𝝈𝒐
𝝈=
𝟏 + 𝜷𝝈𝟐𝒐 𝑹𝟐𝑯 𝑩𝟐
Where 𝜎 = conductivity of a semiconductor
𝜎𝑜 = zero field conductivity
RH = Hall coefficient
B = applied magnetic field
β = a coefficient

𝝆−𝝆𝒐 𝜷𝑹𝟐𝑯 𝑩𝟐
Magnetoresistivity can be written as, =
𝝆𝒐 𝝆𝟐𝒐
𝑹−𝑹𝒐
Magnetoresistance: ∝ 𝑩𝟐
𝑹𝒐
Thank you