A scheme is presented that is based on the alloy analogy model and allows one to account for thermal lattice vibrations as well as spin fluctuations when calculating response quantities in solids. Various models to deal with spin fluctuations are discussed concerning their impact on the resulting temperature-dependent magnetic moment, longitudinal conductivity, and Gilbert damping parameter. It is demonstrated that, by using the Monte Carlo (MC) spin configuration as input, the alloy analogy model is capable of reproducing the results of MC simulations on the average magnetic moment within all spin fluctuation models under discussion. On the other hand, the response quantities are much more sensitive to the spin fluctuation model. Separate calculations accounting for the thermal effect due to either lattice vibrations or spin fluctuations show that they give comparable contributions to the electrical conductivity and Gilbert damping. However, comparison to results accounting for both thermal effects demonstrates violation of Matthiessen's rule, showing the nonadditive effect of lattice vibrations and spin fluctuations. The results obtained for bcc Fe and fcc Ni are compared with the experimental data, showing rather good agreement for the temperature-dependent electrical conductivity and the Gilbert damping parameter.

Within a combined experimental and theoretical study it is shown that the spin Hall angle of a substitutional alloy system can be continuously varied via its composition. For the alloy system Au_{x}Pt_{1-x} a substantial increase of the maximum spin Hall angle compared to the pure alloy partners could be achieved this way. The experimental findings for the longitudinal charge conductivity σ, the transverse spin Hall conductivity σ_{SH}, and the spin Hall angle α_{SH} could be confirmed by calculations based on Kubo's linear response formalism. Calculations of these response quantities for different temperatures show that the divergent behavior of σ and σ_{SH} is rapidly suppressed with increasing temperature. As a consequence, σ_{SH} is dominated at higher temperatures by its intrinsic contribution that has only a rather weak temperature dependence.

We present a rational design scheme intended to provide stable high spin polarization at the interfaces of the magnetoresistive junctions by fulfilling the criteria of structural and chemical compatibilities at the interface. This can be realized by joining the semiconducting and half-metallic Heusler materials with similar structures. The present first-principles calculations verify that the interface remains half-metallic if the nearest interface layers effectively form a stable Heusler material with the properties intermediately between the surrounding bulk parts. This leads to a simple rule for selecting the proper combinations.

Symmetry and magnitude of spin-orbit torques (SOT), i.e., current-induced torques on the magnetization of systems lacking inversion symmetry, are investigated in a fully relativistic linear response framework based on the Kubo formalism. By applying all space-time symmetry operations contained in the magnetic point group of a solid to the relevant response coefficient, the torkance expressed as torque-current correlation function, restrictions to the shape of the direct and inverse response tensors are obtained. These are shown to apply to the corresponding thermal analogues as well, namely the direct and inverse thermal SOT in response to a temperature gradient or heat current. Using an implementation of the Kubo-Bastin formula for the torkance into a first-principles multiple-scattering Green's function framework and accounting for disorder effects via the so-called coherent potential approximation (CPA), all contributions to the SOT in pure systems, dilute as well as concentrated alloys can be treated on equal footing. This way, material specific values for all torkance tensor elements in the fcc (111) trilayer alloy system Pt | FexCo1−x | Cu are obtained over a wide concentration range and discussed in comparison to results for electrical and spin conductivity, as well as to previous work -in particular concerning symmetry w.r.t. magnetization reversal and the nature of the various contributions.

The challenging problem of skew scattering for Hall effects in dilute ferromagnetic alloys, with intertwined effects of spin-orbit coupling, magnetism and impurity scattering, is studied here from first principles. Our main aim is to identify chemical trends and work out simple rules for large skew scattering in terms of the impurity and host states at the Fermi surface, with particular emphasis on the interplay of the spin and anomalous Hall effects in one and the same system. The predicted trends are benchmarked by referring to three different \emph{ab initio} methods based on different approximations with respect to the electronic structure and transport properties.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure