Influence of disorder on the perpendicular magnetoresistance of magnetic multilayers

The effect of disorder on the perpendicular magnetoresistance of magnetic multilayers is investigated theoretically. Various kinds of disorder are considered: (i) interface substitutional disorder and (ii) bulk disorder in the various layers and in the leads. The calculations are based upon the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, together with the recursion method for calculating the real-space Green's function.