Spin manipulations through electrical and thermoelectrical transport in magnetic tunnel junctions

A brief review is presented, which includes the direct current, alternate current, electrical and thermoelectrical transport as well as spin transfer effect in a variety of spin-based nanostructures such as the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), ferromagnet(FM)-quantum dot (QD)/FM-FM, double barrier MTJ, FM-marginal Fermi liquid-FM, FM-unconventional superconductor-FM (FUSF), quantum ring and optical spin-field-effect transistor. The magnetoresistances in those structures, spin accumulation effect in FM-QD-FM and FUSF systems, spin injection and spin filter into semiconductor, spin transfer effect, photon-assisted spin transport, magnonassisted tunneling, electron-electron interaction effect on spin transport, laser-controlled spin dynamics, and thermoelectrical spin transport are discussed.