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Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Although high-tunnelling spin polarization has been observed in soft, ferromagnetic, and predicted for hard, ferrimagnetic Heusler materials, there has been no experimental observation to date of high-tunnelling magnetoresistance in the latter. Here we report the preparation of highly textured, poly...

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Autores principales: Jeong, Jaewoo, Ferrante, Yari, Faleev, Sergey V., Samant, Mahesh G., Felser, Claudia, Parkin, Stuart S. P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4735609/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26776829
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10276
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author Jeong, Jaewoo
Ferrante, Yari
Faleev, Sergey V.
Samant, Mahesh G.
Felser, Claudia
Parkin, Stuart S. P.
author_facet Jeong, Jaewoo
Ferrante, Yari
Faleev, Sergey V.
Samant, Mahesh G.
Felser, Claudia
Parkin, Stuart S. P.
author_sort Jeong, Jaewoo
collection PubMed
description Although high-tunnelling spin polarization has been observed in soft, ferromagnetic, and predicted for hard, ferrimagnetic Heusler materials, there has been no experimental observation to date of high-tunnelling magnetoresistance in the latter. Here we report the preparation of highly textured, polycrystalline Mn(3)Ge films on amorphous substrates, with very high magnetic anisotropy fields exceeding 7 T, making them technologically relevant. However, the small and negative tunnelling magnetoresistance that we find is attributed to predominant tunnelling from the lower moment Mn–Ge termination layers that are oppositely magnetized to the higher moment Mn–Mn layers. The net spin polarization of the current reflects the different proportions of the two distinct termination layers and their associated tunnelling matrix elements that result from inevitable atomic scale roughness. We show that by engineering the spin polarization of the two termination layers to be of the same sign, even though these layers are oppositely magnetized, high-tunnelling magnetoresistance is possible.
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spelling pubmed-47356092016-03-04 Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Jeong, Jaewoo Ferrante, Yari Faleev, Sergey V. Samant, Mahesh G. Felser, Claudia Parkin, Stuart S. P. Nat Commun Article Although high-tunnelling spin polarization has been observed in soft, ferromagnetic, and predicted for hard, ferrimagnetic Heusler materials, there has been no experimental observation to date of high-tunnelling magnetoresistance in the latter. Here we report the preparation of highly textured, polycrystalline Mn(3)Ge films on amorphous substrates, with very high magnetic anisotropy fields exceeding 7 T, making them technologically relevant. However, the small and negative tunnelling magnetoresistance that we find is attributed to predominant tunnelling from the lower moment Mn–Ge termination layers that are oppositely magnetized to the higher moment Mn–Mn layers. The net spin polarization of the current reflects the different proportions of the two distinct termination layers and their associated tunnelling matrix elements that result from inevitable atomic scale roughness. We show that by engineering the spin polarization of the two termination layers to be of the same sign, even though these layers are oppositely magnetized, high-tunnelling magnetoresistance is possible. Nature Publishing Group 2016-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4735609/ /pubmed/26776829 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10276 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Jeong, Jaewoo
Ferrante, Yari
Faleev, Sergey V.
Samant, Mahesh G.
Felser, Claudia
Parkin, Stuart S. P.
Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
title Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
title_full Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
title_fullStr Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
title_full_unstemmed Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
title_short Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
title_sort termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4735609/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26776829
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10276
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