title: Universal scaling of ballistic magnetoresistance in magnetic nanocontacts.
abstract: We show that ballistic magnetoresistance exhibits universal scaling in atomic or nanometer scale contacts. Plotting the data as conductance, we find that, if the maximum magnetoconductance is normalized to unity and the conductance is scaled with the conductivity of the bulk material, the data fall in a narrow region, independent of the nanocontact materials, for our four data sets and four from the literature. The results agree with a theory that takes into account spin-scattering within a magnetic-domain wall.
authors.affiliation: Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Physics Department, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 and Laboratory for Physical Sciences, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Egelhoff
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Gomez