Temperature dependence of the extraordinary Hall effect in magnetic granular alloys

We present the results of theoretical investigation of the temperature dependence of the extraordinary Hall effect (EHE) in granular metal-metal and metal-insulator alloys in the case of electron-phonon scattering at high temperatures. Skew scattering is assumed to be the dominant mechanism of the EHE. The calculations were carried out using Zhang-Levy model and the effective-medium approximation. The single-site electron-phonon interaction model was considered by analogy to that one in the theory of disordered alloys. In the case of strong spin-dependent scattering there is an additional term in the temperature dependence of the EHE coefficient of magnetic granular alloys in comparison with that for bulk ferromagnets. This term is linear with T-3. The similar temperature dependence for the EHE conductivity in granular metal-metal and metal-insulator alloys takes place in spite of the different origin of giant magnetoresistance in these systems. The strong temperature dependence of the EHE coefficient can be viewed as an evidence of enhanced spin-orbit interaction at interfaces between granules and the matrix. We show a linear correlation between the interface contribution to the EHE coefficient and the interface contribution to alloy resistivity. The obtained results are in a qualitative agreement with the recent experimental data for nanocomposites. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.