Diffusive magnetoresistance and interlayer exchange coupling of the ferromagnet-semiconductor layered systems Fe/GaAs and Fe/Ge

We report results on calculations of the electronic, magnetic and transport properties of Fe/GaAs and Fe/Ge multilayer systems. On the base of the generalized Bloch theorem we have calculated the electronic structure for a set of spin-spiral structures, which allows us to extract averaged interlayer exchange parameters and their dependence on the width of the semiconductor spacer. The dependence of the dc conductivity and magnetoresistance on the width of the semiconductor layer and the relative angle between the moments of adjacent FM-layers allowed us to model the dependence of the resistivity on a magnetic field. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.