Switching of a spin valve with three magnetic layers

A spin valve with two pinned ferromagnetic layers sandwiching a free ferromagnetic layer with a thickness smaller than the spin diffusion length in the same layer and than the domain wall thickness is considered. The instability conditions are determined for various mutual orientations of the magnetization of the layers. The possibility of a considerable decrease in the instability threshold due to joint action of spin-polarized current and an external magnetic field is indicated. It is shown that in addition to collinear states, a nonequilibrium noncollinear state can exist, into which the system is switched after exceeding the instability threshold.