A technique was presented which permitted the efficient calculation of the electrical conductivity of large systems which retained periodicity in only 2 dimensions. This technique was used to calculate the non-local electrical conductivity of material which contained stacking faults. These calculations used a realistic first-principles electronic structure, and the conductivity was estimated by using the Kubo-Greenwood formula; with a phenomenological electron lifetime. It was found that the change in electronic structure which was produced by stacking faults led to an enhancement of the spin dependence of the non-local electrical conductivity. A similar enhancement of the spin dependence of the conductivity was found when the crystal structure was changed to closed-packed hexagonal. The effect was traced to the shape of the Fermi surface, which was almost independent of the crystal structure in the majority channel, but which was strongly structure-dependent in the minority channel.

Calculation of Conductivity in the Presence of Structural Defects: Application to Spin Dependence of Conductivity in Cobalt T.C.Schulthess, W.H.Butler, X.G.Zhang, D.M.C.Nicholson, J.M.MacLaren: Physical Review B, 1997, 56[14], 8970-7