Structure of the breakpoint region in CVC of the intrinsic Josephson junctions

A fine structure of the breakpoint region in the current-voltage characteristics of the coupled intrinsic Josephson junctions in the layered superconductors is found. We establish a correspondence between the features in the current-voltage characteristics and the character of the charge oscillations in superconducting layers in the stack and explain the origin of the breakpoint region structure.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for Phys.Rev.

Peculiarities of the stacks with finite number of intrinsic Josephson junctions

We study the breakpoint region on the outermost branch of current-voltage characteristics of the stacks with different number of intrinsic Josephson junctions. We show that at periodic boundary conditions the breakpoint region is absent for stacks with even number of junctions. For stacks with odd number of junctions and for stacks with nonperiodic boundary conditions the breakpoint current is increased with number of junctions and saturated at the value corresponding to the periodic boundary conditions. The region of saturation and the saturated value depend on the coupling between junctions. We explain the results by the parametric resonance at the breakpoint and excitation of the longitudinal plasma wave by the Josephson oscillations. A way for the diagnostics of the junctions in the stack is proposed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Emergent Phenomena Induced by Spin-Orbit Coupling at Surfaces and Interfaces

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) describes the relativistic interaction between the spin and momentum degrees of freedom of electrons, and is central to the rich phenomena observed in condensed matter systems. In recent years, new phases of matter have emerged from the interplay between SOC and low dimensionality, such as chiral spin textures and spin-polarized surface and interface states. These low-dimensional SOC-based realizations are typically robust and can be exploited at room temperature. Here we discuss SOC as a means of producing such fundamentally new physical phenomena in thin films and heterostructures. We put into context the technological promise of these material classes for developing spin-based device applications at room temperature

First-principles quantum transport modeling of spin-transfer and spin-orbit torques in magnetic multilayers

We review a unified approach for computing: (i) spin-transfer torque in magnetic trilayers like spin-valves and magnetic tunnel junction, where injected charge current flows perpendicularly to interfaces; and (ii) spin-orbit torque in magnetic bilayers of the type ferromagnet/spin-orbit-coupled-material, where injected charge current flows parallel to the interface. Our approach requires to construct the torque operator for a given Hamiltonian of the device and the steady-state nonequilibrium density matrix, where the latter is expressed in terms of the nonequilibrium Green's functions and split into three contributions. Tracing these contributions with the torque operator automatically yields field-like and damping-like components of spin-transfer torque or spin-orbit torque vector, which is particularly advantageous for spin-orbit torque where the direction of these components depends on the unknown-in-advance orientation of the current-driven nonequilibrium spin density in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. We provide illustrative examples by computing spin-transfer torque in a one-dimensional toy model of a magnetic tunnel junction and realistic Co/Cu/Co spin-valve, both of which are described by first-principles Hamiltonians obtained from noncollinear density functional theory calculations; as well as spin-orbit torque in a ferromagnetic layer described by a tight-binding Hamiltonian which includes spin-orbit proximity effect within ferromagnetic monolayers assumed to be generated by the adjacent monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, PDFLaTeX; prepared for Springer Handbook of Materials Modeling, Volume 2 Applications: Current and Emerging Material

Significant enhancement of ferromagnetism above room temperature in epitaxial 2D van der Waals ferromagnet Fe_{5−<i>δ</i>}GeTe₂/Bi₂Te₃ heterostructures

Record value of Curie temperature when the 2D van der Waals Fe5−δGeTe2, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, is interfaced with the topological insulator Bi2Te3.</jats:p

Significant enhancement of ferromagnetism above room temperature in epitaxial 2D van der Waals ferromagnet Fe5−δGeTe2/Bi2Te3 heterostructures

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnetic metals FexGeTe2 with x = 3-5 have raised significant interest in the scientific community. Fe5GeTe2 shows prospects for spintronic applications since the Curie temperature Tc has been reported near or higher than 300 K. In the present work, epitaxial Fe5−δGeTe2 (FGT) heterostructures were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) on insulating crystalline substrates. The FGT films were combined with Bi2Te3 topological insulator (TI) aiming to investigate the possible beneficial effect of the TI on the magnetic properties of FGT. FGT/Bi2Te3 films were compared to FGT capped only with AlOx to prevent oxidation. SQUID and MOKE measurements revealed that the growth of Bi2Te3 TI on FGT films significantly enhances the saturation magnetization of FGT as well as the Tc well above room temperature (RT) reaching record values of 570 K. First-principles calculations predict a shift of the Fermi level and an associated enhancement of the majority spin (primarily) as well as the total density of states at the Fermi level suggesting that effective doping of FGT from Bi2Te3 could explain the enhancement of ferromagnetism in FGT. It is also predicted that strain induced stabilization of a high magnetic moment phase in FGT/Bi2Te3 could be an alternative explanation of magnetization and Tc enhancement. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements evidence an enhanced broadening in the FGT/Bi2Te3 heterostructure when compared to FGT. We obtain a large spin mixing conductance of g↑↓eff = 4.4 × 1020 m−2, which demonstrates the great potential of FGT/Bi2Te3 systems for spin-charge conversion applications at room temperature. © 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Significant enhancement of ferromagnetism above room temperature in epitaxial 2D van der Waals ferromagnet Fe_5-δ GeTe₂/Bi₂Te₃ heterostructures

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnetic metals FexGeTe2 with x = 3-5 have raised significant interest in the scientific community. Fe5GeTe2 shows prospects for spintronic applications since the Curie temperature Tc has been reported near or higher than 300 K. In the present work, epitaxial Fe5-dGeTe2 (FGT) heterostructures were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) on insulating crystalline substrates. The FGT films were combined with Bi2Te3 topological insulator (TI) aiming to investigate the possible beneficial effect of the TI on the magnetic properties of FGT. FGT/Bi2Te3 films were compared to FGT capped only with AlOx to prevent oxidation. SQUID and MOKE measurements revealed that the growth of Bi2Te3 TI on FGT films significantly enhances the saturation magnetization of FGT as well as the Tc well above room temperature (RT) reaching record values of 570 K. First-principles calculations predict a shift of the Fermi level and an associated enhancement of the majority spin ( primarily) as well as the total density of states at the Fermi level suggesting that effective doping of FGT from Bi2Te3 could explain the enhancement of ferromagnetism in FGT. It is also predicted that strain induced stabilization of a high magnetic moment phase in FGT/Bi2Te3 could be an alternative explanation of magnetization and Tc enhancement. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements evidence an enhanced broadening in the FGT/ Bi2Te3 heterostructure when compared to FGT. We obtain a large spin mixing conductance of g"# eff = 4.4 x 1020 m-2, which demonstrates the great potential of FGT/Bi2Te3 systems for spin-charge conversion applications at room temperature