No Arabic abstract
Spin accumulation in a paramagnetic semiconductor due to voltage-biased current tunneling from a polarized ferromagnet is experimentally manifest as a small additional spin-dependent resistance. We describe a rigorous model incorporating the necessary self-consistency between electrochemical potential splitting, spin-dependent injection current, and applied voltage that can be used to simulate this so-called 3T signal as a function of temperature, doping, ferromagnet bulk spin polarization, tunnel barrier features and conduction nonlinearity, and junction voltage bias.
We find extraordinary behavior of the local two-terminal spin accumulation signals in ferromagnet (FM)/semiconductor (SC) lateral spin-valve devices. With respect to the bias voltage applied between two FM/SC Schottky tunnel contacts, the local spin-accumulation signal can show nonmonotonic variations, including a sign inversion. A part of the nonmonotonic features can be understood qualitatively by considering the rapid reduction in the spin polarization of the FM/SC interfaces with increasing bias voltage. In addition to the sign inversion of the FM/SC interface spin polarization, the influence of the spin-drift effect in the SC layer and the nonlinear electrical spin conversion at a biased FM/SC contact are discussed.
The effects of the spin-orbit interaction on the tunneling magnetoresistance of ferromagnet/semiconductor/normal metal tunnel junctions are investigated. Analytical expressions for the tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) are derived within an approximation in which the dependence of the magnetoresistance on the magnetization orientation in the ferromagnet originates from the interference between Bychkov-Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings that appear at junction interfaces and in the tunneling region. We also investigate the transport properties of ferromagnet/semiconductor/ferromagnet tunnel junctions and show that in such structures the spin-orbit interaction leads not only to the TAMR effect but also to the anisotropy of the conventional tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR). The resulting anisotropic tunneling magnetoresistance (ATMR) depends on the absolute magnetization directions in the ferromagnets. Within the proposed model, depending on the magnetization directions in the ferromagnets, the interplay of Bychkov-Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings produces differences between the rates of transmitted and reflected spins at the ferromagnet/seminconductor interfaces, which results in an anisotropic local density of states at the Fermi surface and in the TAMR and ATMR effects. Model calculations for Fe/GaAs/Fe tunnel junctions are presented. Furthermore, based on rather general symmetry considerations, we deduce the form of the magnetoresistance dependence on the absolute orientations of the magnetizations in the ferromagnets.
Using a simple quantum-mechanical model, we explore a tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) effect in ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) with a ferromagnetic electrode and a ferroelectric barrier layer, which spontaneous polarization gives rise to the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (SOC). For realistic parameters of the model, we predict sizable TAMR measurable experimentally. For asymmetric FTJs, which electrodes have different work functions, the built-in electric field affects the SOC parameters and leads to TAMR dependent on ferroelectric polarization direction. The SOC change with polarization switching affects tunneling conductance, revealing a new mechanism of tunneling electroresistance (TER). These results demonstrate new functionalities of FTJs which can be explored experimentally and used in electronic devices.
Superconductivity and magnetism are generally incompatible because of the opposing requirement on electron spin alignment. When combined, they produce a multitude of fascinating phenomena, including unconventional superconductivity and topological superconductivity. The emergence of two-dimensional (2D)layered superconducting and magnetic materials that can form nanoscale junctions with atomically sharp interfaces presents an ideal laboratory to explore new phenomena from coexisting superconductivity and magnetic ordering. Here we report tunneling spectroscopy under an in-plane magnetic field of superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor (S/F/S) tunnel junctions that are made of 2D Ising superconductor NbSe2 and ferromagnetic insulator CrBr3. We observe nearly 100% tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR), that is, difference in tunnel resistance upon changing magnetization direction from out-of-plane to inplane. The giant tunneling AMR is induced by superconductivity, particularly, a result of interfacial magnetic exchange coupling and spin-dependent quasiparticle scattering. We also observe an intriguing magnetic hysteresis effect in superconducting gap energy and quasiparticle scattering rate with a critical temperature that is 2 K below the superconducting transition temperature. Our study paves the path for exploring superconducting spintronic and unconventional superconductivity in van der Waals heterostructures.
We theoretically investigate tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) devices, which are probing the spin-momentum coupled nature of surface states of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$. Theoretical calculations are performed based on a realistic tight-binding model for Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$. We study both three dimensional devices, which exploit the surface states of Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$, as well as two-dimensional devices, which exploit the edge states of thin Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ strips. We demonstrate that the material properties of Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ allow a TMR ratio at room temperature of the order of 1000%. Analytical formulas are derived that allow a quick estimate of the achievable TMR ratio in these devices. The devices can be used to measure the spin polarization of the topological surface states as an alternative to spin-ARPES. Unlike TMR devices based on magnetic tunnel junctions the present devices avoid the use of a second ferromagnetic electrode whose magnetization needs to be pinned.