Spin-transfer torque and specific features of magnetic-state switching in vacuum tunnel nanostructures

The specific features of spin-transfer torque in vacuum tunnel structures with magnetic electrodes are investigated using the quasi-classical Sommerfeld model of electron conductivity, which takes into account the exchange splitting of the spin energy subbands of free electrons. Using the calculated voltage dependences of the transferred torques for a tunnel structure with cobalt electrodes and noncollinear magnetic moments in the electrodes, diagrams of stable spin states on the current–field parameter plane in the in-plane geometry of the initial magnetization are obtained.