Thermoelectrical manipulation of nano-magnets

We propose a device that can operate as a magneto-resistive switch or oscillator. The device is based on a spin-thermo-electronic control of the exchange coupling of two strong ferromagnets through a weakly ferromagnetic spacer. We show that the local Joule heating due to a high concentration of current in a magnetic point contact or a nanopillar can be used to reversibly drive the weak ferromagnet through its Curie point and thereby exchange-decouple the strongly ferromagnetic layers, which have an antiparallel ground state. Such a spin-thermionic parallel-to-antiparallel switching causes magnetoresistance oscillations where the frequency can be controlled by proper biasing from essentially DC to GHz.