Electronic and magnetic properties of SnO(2)/CrO(2 )thin superlattices

In this article, using first-principles electronic structure calculations within the spin density functional theory, alternated magnetic and non-magnetic layers of rutile-CrO(2 )and rutile-SnO(2 )respectively, in a (CrO(2))(n)(SnO(2))(n )superlattice (SL) configuration, with n being the number of monolayers which are considered equal to 1, 2, ..., 10 are studied. A half-metallic behavior is observed for the (CrO(2))(n)(SnO(2))(n )SLs for all values of n. The ground state is found to be FM with a magnetic moment of 2 μ(B )per chromium atom, and this result does not depend on the number of monolayers n. As the FM rutile-CrO(2 )is unstable at ambient temperature, and known to be stabilized when on top of SnO(2), the authors suggest that (CrO(2))(n)(SnO(2))(n )SLs may be applied to spintronic technologies since they provide efficient spin-polarized carriers.