Tunneling magnetoresistance in Fe{sub 3}Si/MgO/Fe{sub 3}Si(001) magnetic tunnel junctions
- Department of Physics and the Center of Theoretical and Computational Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (China)
We present a theoretical study of the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and spin-polarized transport in Fe{sub 3}Si/MgO/Fe{sub 3}Si(001) magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). It is found that the spin-polarized conductance and bias-dependent TMR ratios are rather sensitive to the structure of Fe{sub 3}Si electrode. From the symmetry analysis of the band structures, we found that there is no spin-polarized Δ{sub 1} symmetry bands crossing the Fermi level for the cubic Fe{sub 3}Si. In contrast, the tetragonal Fe{sub 3}Si driven by in-plane strain reveals half-metal nature in terms of Δ{sub 1} state. The giant TMR ratios are predicted for both MTJs with cubic and tetragonal Fe{sub 3}Si electrodes under zero bias. However, the giant TMR ratio resulting from interface resonant transmission for the former decreases rapidly with the bias. For the latter, the giant TMR ratio can maintain up to larger bias due to coherent transmission through the majority-spin Δ{sub 1} channel.
- OSTI ID:
- 22267728
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 17; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Magnetic properties of epitaxial Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} films with various crystal orientations and tunnel magnetoresistance effect at room temperature
Sign change in the tunnel magnetoresistance of Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}/MgO/Co-Fe-B magnetic tunnel junctions depending on the annealing temperature and the interface treatment