Tunneling magnetoresistance in Fe-oxide film

We fabricate Fe/Fe oxide granular film by DC sputtering and study the magnetic and transport properties in the insulator region. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy confirm the coexistence of iron and Fe₂O₃. Accompanied with the nonlinear I-V curve and magnetic measurement, we investigate mechanism of sizable magnetoresistance in detail and found the spin in the interface has crucial contribution to the spin tunneling process.     

Annealing effect on tunneling magnetoresistance in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions with FeMn exchange-bias layer

MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions were fabricated, with a thin pinned CoFeB layer in the unbalanced synthetic antiferromagnet part of the stack FeMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFeB. Inverted and normal tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) values occur at low and high annealing temperatures (T_a), respectively. The TMR ratio remains inverted up to T_a=300 °C and it becomes normal around T_a=350 °C. The exchange bias of FeMn disappears at high T_a. The sign reversal of the TMR ratio is mainly attributed to the disappearance of the exchange bias due to manganese diffusion during the annealing process.     

The tunneling magnetoresistance in GaMnAs/GaAs/GaMnAs junctions

The tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in GaMnAs/GaAs/GaMnAs magnetic tunnel junctions is studied under an extended coherent tunneling approach where both the contributions of the light holes and the heavy holes and their mutual competitions are investigated. It is shown that the TMR ratio can increase with decreasing the barrier strength, which is different from the results in the conventional magnetic tunnel junctions but a good news for the applications. It is also shown that the presence of the pinholes in the thin barrier layer gives a possible explanation of the peak in the barrier thickness dependence of the TMR ratio.     

Contact barriers in a single ZnO nanowire device

The contact potential between a single ZnO nanowire and Ti/Au contacts was estimated to be ∼30 meV by considering the Arrhenious plot of the two-probe resistance, the thermionic emission conduction, and the Fowler–Nordheim tunneling model. The net voltages applied to the contacts were calculated by subtracting the four-probe voltages from the two-probe voltages at the same currents. The activation energy of the four-probe resistance was about 2.4 mV which was 1/11th of that of the two-probe resistance. The Fowler–Nordheim plot clearly showed the crossover of the conduction mechanism from thermionic emission to tunneling regime as lowering the temperatures below T<100 K.     

EFM phase investigation of the metal-organic film interface

Phase sensitive electrostatic force microscopy (EFM phase) investigations of semiconducting polymers, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (F8), are described, aimed at understanding the metal/polymer interfaces. The electrostatic behaviour and potential distributions of the Au/polymer/Au structure under various biases with emphasis on top and bottom Au contacts are presented. We observe, by analysing EFM phase data, that the top and bottom contacts of Au can have drastic effects on the device performance. Moreover, differences in conductivity of conjugated polymers (P3HT > F8) are also reflected in EFM phase measurements, which correlate well with I-V measurements. Detailed analysis indicates that the influence of metal/film interfaces depends strongly on both the ability of charge transport properties of the organic films and the type of surface modification.     

Electron-spin polarization in a non-magnetic heterostructure

The spin dependent electron transmission through a non-magnetic III-V semiconductor symmetric well is studied theoretically so as to investigate the output transmission current polarization at zero magnetic field. Transparency of electron transmission is calculated as a function of electron energy as well as the well width, within the one electron band approximation along with the spin-orbit interaction. Enhanced spin-polarized resonant tunneling in the heterostructure due to Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit coupling induced splitting of the resonant level is observed. We predict that a spin-polarized current spontaneously emerges in this heterostructure. This effect could be employed in the fabrication of spin filters, spin injectors and detectors based on non-magnetic semiconductors.     

Spin-polarized transport in ferromagnet/Rashba quantum dot/ferromagnet system

The transport properties of the Datta and Das's spin transistor with the center normal region (or the quantum dot) having Rashba spin–orbit interaction and electron–electron (e–e) interaction U are investigated. We find while intra-dot level is near or above the chemical potential of the leads, the modulation efficiency of this spin transistor almost is not influenced by U. On the other hand, when the level is below the chemical potential, e–e interaction U may affect the modulator efficiency, because in this case the existence of e–e interaction can change the transport properties of the quantum dot. But the modulation efficiency still keep enough large and the spin transistor can effectively work.     

Enhanced magnetoresistance in La0.82Sr0.18MnO3-π-conjugated semiconducting polymer heterostructure

We report a large enhancement (∼90%) in magnetoresistance in La_0.82Sr_0.18MnO₃ (LSMO) layers by incorporating a π-conjugated semiconducting polymer layer in between them. The epitaxial LSMO layers were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on SrTiO₃ single crystal substrates and have FM transition temperature (T_C)∼310 K. A semiconducting polymer poly(3-octylthiophene) (P3OT) layer was deposited over the epitaxial LSMO layer by solution dip coating technique and with subsequent deposition of another epitaxial LSMO layer, forming a LSMO-P3OT-LSMO heterostructure. The effect of P3OT incorporation on magnetotransport properties of this heterostructure has been examined in the temperature range 77-350 K. Large MR enhancement observed near room temperature in the FM regime is explained in terms of efficient magnetic field dependent carrier injection at LSMO/P3OT interface.     

Influence of strain on the tunneling magnetoresistance in diluted magnetic semiconductor trilayer and double barrier structures

The influence of strain on hole tunneling in trilayer and double barrier structures made of two diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) (Ga, Mn)As, separated by a thin layer of non-magnetic AlAs is investigated theoretically. The strain is caused by lattice mismatch as the whole structure is grown on a (In_0.15Ga_0.85)As buffer layer. The tensile strain makes the easy axis of magnetization orient along the growth direction. We found that biaxial strain has a strong influence on the tunneling current because the spin splitting at is comparable to the Fermi energy E_F. Tensile strain decreases the tunneling magnetoresistance ratio.     

Some exact identities connecting one- and two-particle Green's functions in spin–orbit coupling systems

Some exact identities connecting one- and two-particle Green's functions in the presence of spin–orbit coupling have been derived. These identities are similar to the Ward identity in usual quantum transport theory of electrons. A satisfying approximate calculation of the spin transport in spin–orbit coupling system should also preserve these identities, just as the Ward identities should be remained in the usual electronic transport theory.     

Effect of different conductivity between the spin polarons on spin injection in a ferromagnet/organic semiconductor system

Spin injection across ferromagnet/organic semiconductor system with finite width of the layers was studied theoretically considering spin-dependent conductivity in the organic-semiconductor. It was found that the spin injection efficiency is directly dependent on the difference between the conductivity of the up-spin and down-spin polarons in the spin-injected organic system. Furthermore, the finite width of the structure, interfacial electrochemical-potential and conductivity mismatch have great influence on the spin injection process across ferromagnet/organic semiconductor interface.     

Effects of disorder on tunnel magnetoresistance in Fe/MgO/Fe junctions

Effects of lattice distortion and oxygen vacancy on tunnel magnetoresistance in Fe/MgO/Fe junctions are theoretically investigated. By treating the distortion in MgO as the random potential and performing numerical simulations based on the Kubo–Landauer formula, it is shown that the magnetoresistance ratio decreases with increasing randomness. Moreover, first-principles calculations within the density functional theory show that the defect states in the Fe/MgO cluster containing an oxygen vacancy induce no significant shift in the Fermi level.     

Theoretical model of spin transfer torque in multilayers

We present a model of spin transport in a Co/Cu(1 1 1)/Co pseudo-spin-valve (PSV) structure where current is flowing in the current perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) geometry. The model considers ballistic spin-dependent transmission at the two Co–Cu interfaces, as well as diffusive spin relaxation within the Cu spacer and free Co layer. In the latter, the spin relaxation process is composed of the usual longitudinal spin relaxation due to spin flip scattering, as well as transverse spin relaxation due to spin precession. The resulting spin transfer torque exerted on the moments within the free Co layer is composed of two contributions, the main contribution coming from “absorbed” spins in the interfacial regions. The second contribution arises from the relaxation of spin accumulation within the free Co layer. The calculated critical current density for switching is estimated to be approximately between 3.3×10⁷ and 1.1×10⁸ A/cm², which is in agreement with available experimental results.     

Current induced resistance change of magnetic tunnel junctions with ultra-thin MgO tunnel barriers

Ultra-thin magnetic tunnel junctions with low resistive MgO tunnel barriers are prepared to examine their stability under large current stress. The devices show magnetoresistance ratios of up to 110% and an area resistance product of down to . If a large current is applied, a reversible resistance change is observed, which can be attributed to two different processes during stressing and one relaxation process afterwards. Here, we analyze the time dependence of the resistance and use a simple model to explain the observed behavior. The explanation is further supported by numerical fits to the data in order to quantify the timescales of the involved phenomena.     

Schottky Barrier Formation at a Carbon Nanotube-Scandium Junction

Recent experiment shows that scandium （Sc） can make a good performance contact with carbon nanotubes （CNTs） to fabricate n-type field effect transistor （n-FET）. We study the Schottky barrier （SB） of scandium （Sc） and palladium （Pd） with a （8,0） single-wall CNT （SWCNT） using first-principles calculation. It is found that the p-type SB height （SBH） of the Pd-CNT contact is about 0.34 eV, which is in good agreement with the experimental data. For the Sc-CNT contact, an n-type contact is formed and the SBH is about O.08eV in agreement with the experimental observations. Our calculation demonstrates that by contacting CNT with Pd and Sc, p-FET and n-FET can be fabricated, respectively. The dipole effect at the interface is used to explain our result.     

Effect of electric-field on spin transport and spin current in an organic semiconductor system

We use the two-component drift-diffusion model to study the spin density polarization in an organic semiconductor system under an external electric-field. The spin-dependent electrical-conductivity, the drift spin current and the diffusion spin current in the organic semiconductor are self-consistently derived. It is found that the spin current could be strongly influenced by the spin-dependent electrical-conductivity. When the spin-dependent conductivity varies from 0 to 0.5%, the spin current presents a very pronounced change almost three orders in magnitude. The electric-field could effectively enhance the spin-dependent electrical-conductivity and the spin current. Furthermore, the spin-dependent electrical-conductivity is position sensitive, but its position sensitivity goes down while electric-field is larger than about 1 mV/μm.     

Giant magnetoresistance effect in hybrid ferromagnetic-Schottky-metal and semiconductor nanosystem

We report on a theoretical investigation of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect in hybrid ferromagnetic-Schottky-metal and semiconductor nanosystem. Experimentally, this GMR device can be realized by the deposition of two ferromagnetic (FM) stripes and one Schottky normal metal (NM) in parallel way on the top of a semiconductor GaAs heterostructure. The GMR effect emanates from the significant transmission difference for electrons tunneling through parallel and antiparallel magnetization configurations of the device, and its magnetoresistance ratio (MR) can reach the order of ¹⁰⁶%. Furthermore, it is also shown that the MR of the device depends strongly on the relative location of the Schottky NM stripe between two FM stripes.     

Spin injection in an organic device with a spin polarized self-assembled monolayer

We propose to achieve spin injection in an organic device by a spin polarized self-assembled monolayer (SPSAM), which is used to tune the spin-dependent coupling between electrode and organic polymer. The results show that spin injection can be realized by both the spin selection and spin manipulation effects of the SPSAM. Interestingly, we found spin polarized wave-packet as a consequence of the spin injection, which is a mix of a normal spin polaron and a spinless bipolaron.     

Analysis of the anomalous Hall effect in a double layer of a ferromagnetic and a normal metal

A new method is suggested to investigate the mechanism of the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in ferromagnetic metals. Using a double layer of a ferromagnet and a normal metal of increasing thickness one can manipulate the AHE in the ferromagnet without changing the ferromagnet's structure and electronic properties. The conduction electrons from the normal metal carry their drift velocity across the interface into the ferromagnetic film and induce an additional AHE conductance ΔG_xy. Its dependence on the mean free path in the normal metal distinguishes between the side jump and the skew scattering mechanisms for the AHE in the ferromagnet.     

Influence of surface cleaning effects on properties of Schottky diodes on 4H-SiC

Ir/4H-SiC and IrO₂/4H-SiC Schottky diodes are reported in terms of different methods of surface pretreatment before contact deposition. In order to find the effect of surface preparation processes on Schottky characteristics the SiC wafers were respectively cleaned using the following processes: (1) RCA method followed by buffered HF dip. Next, the surface was oxidized (5.5 nm oxide) using a rapid thermal processing reactor chamber and circular geometry windows were opened in the oxide layer before metallization deposition; (2) the same as sequence (1) but with an additional in situ sputter etching step before metallization deposition; (3) cleaning in organic solvents followed by buffered HF dip. The I-V characteristics of Schottky diodes were analyzed to find a correlation between extracted parameters and surface treatment. The best results were obtained for the sequence (1) taking into account theoretical value of Schottky barrier height. The contacts showed excellent Schottky behavior with ideality factors below 1.08 and barrier heights of 1.46 eV and 1.64 eV for Ir and IrO₂, respectively. Very promising results were obtained for samples prepared using the sequence (2) taking into account the total static power losses because the modified surface preparation results in a decrease in the forward voltage drop and reverse leakage current simultaneously. The contacts with ideality factor below 1.09 and barrier height of 1.02 eV were fabricated for Ir/4H-SiC diodes in sequence (2).