244 research outputs found
Nonpolar resistance switching of metal/binary-transition-metal oxides/metal sandwiches: homogeneous/inhomogeneous transition of current distribution
Exotic features of a metal/oxide/metal (MOM) sandwich, which will be the
basis for a drastically innovative nonvolatile memory device, is brought to
light from a physical point of view. Here the insulator is one of the
ubiquitous and classic binary-transition-metal oxides (TMO), such as Fe2O3,
NiO, and CoO. The sandwich exhibits a resistance that reversibly switches
between two states: one is a highly resistive off-state and the other is a
conductive on-state. Several distinct features were universally observed in
these binary TMO sandwiches: namely, nonpolar switching, non-volatile threshold
switching, and current--voltage duality. From the systematic sample-size
dependence of the resistance in on- and off-states, we conclude that the
resistance switching is due to the homogeneous/inhomogeneous transition of the
current distribution at the interface.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX4, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (Feb. 23,
2007). If you can't download a PDF file of this manscript, an alternative one
can be found on the author's website: http://staff.aist.go.jp/i.inoue
First principles theoretical studies of half-metallic ferromagnetism in CrTe
Using full-potential linear augmented plane wave method (FP-LAPW) and the
density functional theory, we have carried out a systematic investigation of
the electronic, magnetic, and cohesive properties of the chalcogenide CrTe in
three competing structures: rock-salt (RS), zinc blende (ZB) and the NiAs-type
(NA) hexagonal. Although the ground state is of NA structure, RS and ZB are
interesting in that these fcc-based structures, which can possibly be grown on
many semiconductor substrates, exhibit half-metallic phases above some critical
values of the lattice parameter. We find that the NA structure is not
half-metallic at its equilibrium volume, while both ZB and RS structures are.
The RS structure is more stable than the ZB, with an energy that is lower by
0.25 eV/atom. While confirming previous results on the half-metallic phase in
ZB structure, we provide hitherto unreported results on the half-metallic RS
phase, with a gap in the minority channel and a magnetic moment of 4.0
per formula unit. A comparison of total energies for the
ferromagnetic (FM), non-magnetic (NM), and antiferromagnetic (AFM)
configurations shows the lowest energy configuration to be FM for CrTe in all
the three structures. The FP-LAPW calculations are supplemented by linear
muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) calculations using both local density approximation
(LDA) and LDA+U method. The exchange interactions and the Curie temperatures
calculated via the linear response method in ZB and RS CrTe are compared over a
wide range of the lattice parameter. The calculated Curie temperatures for the
RS phase are consistently higher than those for the ZB phase.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure
Magnetoresistance characteristics of Fe3Si/CaF2/Fe3Si heterostructures grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy
AbstractFe3Si/CaF2/Fe3Si magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have been investigated to demonstrate the tunnel magnetoresistance effects. We fabricated Fe3Si(20 nm)/CaF2(2 nm)/Fe3Si(15 nm) heterostructures epitaxially on a Si(111) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The current-voltage characteristics for the MTJs measured at room temperature (RT) were well fitted to Simmons’ equation. The fitting yields the barrier height φ=2.5 eV and the barrier thickness d=1.26 nm. The magnetoresistance ratio for the MTJs were approximately 0.28% under a bias voltage of 20 mV at RT
Half-metallic ferromagnetism and structural stability of zincblende phases of the transition-metal chalcogenides
An accurate density-functional method is used to study systematically
half-metallic ferromagnetism and stability of zincblende phases of
3d-transition-metal chalcogenides. The zincblende CrTe, CrSe, and VTe phases
are found to be excellent half-metallic ferromagnets with large half-metallic
gaps (up to 0.88 eV). They are mechanically stable and approximately 0.31-0.53
eV per formula unit higher in total energy than the corresponding
nickel-arsenide ground-state phases, and therefore would be grown epitaxially
in the form of films and layers thick enough for spintronic applications.Comment: 4 pages with 4 figures include
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