Theoretical study on magnetic tunneling junctions with semiconductor barriers CuInSe2_2 and CuGaSe2_2 including a detailed analysis of band-resolved transmittances

We study spin-dependent transport properties in magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) with semiconductor barriers, Fe/CuInSe$_2$/Fe(001) and Fe/CuGaSe$_2$/Fe(001). By analyzing their transmittances at zero bias voltage on the basis of the first-principles calculations, we find that spin-dependent coherent tunneling transport of $\Delta_1$ wave functions yields a relatively high magnetoresistance (MR) ratio in both the MTJs. We carry out a detailed analysis of the band-resolved transmittances in both the MTJs and find an absence of the selective transmission of $\Delta_1$ wave functions in some energy regions a few eV away from the Fermi level due to small band gaps in CuInSe$_2$ and CuGaSe$_2$.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Measurement of High Temperature Thermodynamic Propertiesof Several Binary Alkali Silicate Glasses

The method for continuous measurement of the high temperature heat content, developed by W.Oelsen et al. and applied to the glasses by M.Tashiro, was examined and modified in some points. Relations between the temperature and heat contents referred to the standard temperature 25℃, were determined for the some glasses of R(2)O-SiO(2) system, and the specific heats as well as the entropies were calculated. Comparing the results, some views have been obtained relating to the effect of the species and content of alkali ions on the thermodynamic quantities of such glasses

A first-principles study of tunneling magnetoresistance in Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) magnetic tunnel junctions

We investigated the spin-dependent transport properties of Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) on the basis of first-principles calculations of the electronic structures and the ballistic conductance. The calculated tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of a Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) MTJ was about 160%, which was much smaller than that of a Fe/MgO/Fe(001) MTJ (1600%) for the same barrier thickness. However, there was an evanescent state with delta 1 symmetry in the energy gap around the Fermi level of normal spinel MgAl2O4, indicating the possibility of a large TMR in Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) MTJs. The small TMR ratio of the Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) MTJ was due to new conductive channels in the minority spin states resulting from a band-folding effect in the two-dimensional (2-D) Brillouin zone of the in-plane wave vector (k//) of the Fe electrode. Since the in-plane cell size of MgAl2O4 is twice that of the primitive in-plane cell size of bcc Fe, the bands in the boundary edges are folded, and minority-spin states coupled with the delta 1 evanescent state in the MgAl2O4 barrier appear at k//=0, which reduces the TMR ratio of the MTJs significantly.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl