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We investigated the Ge-composition (Îł) dependence of the saturation magnetization of Co2Fe(Ga, Ge) (CFGG) thin films and the magnetoresistance (MR) ratio of CFGG-based current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) devices together with first-principles calculations of the electronic states of CFGG. Theoretical calculations showed that spin polarization is highest at the stoichiometric composition Îł = 0.56 in Co2Fe1.03Ga0.41Ge Îł and that it decreases in off-stoichiometric CFGG, mainly due to the formation of CoFe antisites for Ge-deficient compositions and FeCo antisites for Ge-rich compositions, where CoFe (FeCo) indicates that Co (Fe) atoms replace the Fe (Co) sites. The saturation magnetic moment (ÎĽ s) per formula unit decreased monotonically as Îł increased from 0.24 to 1.54 in Co2Fe1.03Ga0.41Ge Îł. The ÎĽ s was closest to the Slaterâ€"Pauling value predicted for half-metallic CFGG at the stoichiometric composition Îł = 0.56, indicating that stoichiometric CFGG has a half-metallic nature. This is consistent with the result for the theoretical spin polarization. In contrast, the MR ratio of CFGG-based CPP-GMR devices increased monotonically as Îł increased from 0.24 to 1.10 and reached an MR ratio of 87.9% at the Ge-rich composition Îł = 1.10. Then, the MR ratio decreased rapidly as Îł increased from 1.10 to 1.48. Possible origins for the slight difference between the Ge composition at which the highest MR ratio was obtained (Îł = 1.10) and that at which the highest spin polarization was obtained (Îł = 0.56) are improved atomic arrangements in a Ge-rich CFGG film and the reduction of effective Ge composition due to Ge diffusion in the GMR stacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helical functionalization of carbon nanotubes using DNA strands can polarize carrier spins through chirality induced spin selectivity (or CISS) effect. Detection of this effect using transport experiments unravels an underlying magnetoresistance effect, origin of which is not well understood. In the present study, we investigate this effect, a fundamental understanding of which is crucial for the potential use of this system in spintronic devices. The conduction mechanism has been found to be in the strongly localized regime due to DNA functionalization, with the observed magnetoresistance originating from the interference effects between the forward and backward hopping paths. CISS-induced spin polarization has been estimated to increase the carrier localization length by an order of magnitude in the low temperature range and it affects the magnetoresistance effect in a non-trivial way that is not observed in conventional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bias-controlled spin-filter and spin memory is theoretically proposed, which consists of the junction with a single-molecule magnet sandwiched between the nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic (FM) leads. By applying different voltage pulses Vwrite across the junction, the spin direction of the single-molecule magnet can be controlled to be parallel or anti-parallel to the magnetization of the FM lead, and the spin direction of SMM can be "read out" either by the magneto-resistance or by the spin current with another series of small voltage pulses Vprobe. It is shown that the polarization of the spin current is extremely high (up to 100%) and can be manipulated by the full-electric manner. This device scheme can be compatible with current technologies and has potential applications in high-density memory devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most prominent and effective applications of graphene in the field of spintronics is its use as a spacer layer between ferromagnetic metals in vertical spin valve devices, which are widely used as magnetic sensors. The magnetoresistance in such devices can be enhanced by a selection of suitable spacer materials and proper fabrication procedures. Here, we report the use of dry-transferred single- and double-layer graphene, grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), as the spacer layer and the fabrication procedure in which no photo-resist or electron-beam resists is used. The measured maximum magnetoresistance of NiFe/CVD-Graphene/Co junction is 0.9% for the single- and 1.2% for the double-layer graphene at 30 K. The spin polarization efficiency of the ferromagnetic electrodes is about 6.7% and 8% for the single- and the double-layer graphene, respectively, at the same temperature. The bias-independent magnetoresistance rules out any contamination and oxidation of the interfaces between the ferromagnet and the graphene. The magnetoresistance measured as a function of tilted magnetic field at different angles showed no changes in the maximum value, which implies that the magnetoresistance signal is absent from anisotropic effects.

We inserted non-magnetic layers of Au and Cu into sputtered AlO-based magnetic tunnel junctions and Meservey–Tedrow junctions in order to study their effect on tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) and spin polarization (TSP). When either Au or Cu are inserted into a Co/AlO interface, we find that TMR and TSP remain finite and measurable for thicknesses up to several nanometres. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy shows that the Cu and Au interface layers are fully continuous when their thickness exceeds ∼3nm, implying that spin-polarized carriers penetrate the interface noble metal to distances exceeding this value. A power law model based on exchange scattering is found to fit the data better than a phenomenological exponential decay. The discrepancy between these length scales and the much shorter ones reported from x-ray magnetic circular dichroism studies of magnetic proximitization is ascribed to the fact that our tunnelling transport measurements selectively probe s-like electrons close to the Fermi level. When a 0.1 nm thick Cu or Au layer is inserted within the Co, we find that the suppression of TMR and TSP is restored on a length scale of ≲1nm, indicating that this is a sufficient quantity of Co to form a fully spin-polarized band structure at the interface with the tunnel barrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co/C granular films with 3-21% Co content are fabricated by facing-target magnetron sputtering. As the Co content increases, the isolated Co particles in the a-C matrix gradually connect with each other, and consequently the electrical transport of the Co/C films changes from insulating to metallic conduction. The insulating samples show spin-dependent negative magnetoresistance (MR), which is related to the alignment of the spins at the interface between Co particles and the carbon matrix. Interfacial spin polarization P0 is related to the amount of interfacial hybridization, which is influenced by the size of sp² carbon clusters in the a-C matrix. Metallic samples show the competition of negative MR and positive linear MR. Negative MR observed at low temperatures is caused by a weak localization effect and is suppressed when the magnetic field is above 15 kOe. Positive linear MR is observed at high fields and high temperatures, and could be explained by quantum electron-electron interaction theory. The magnetotransport properties in the Co/C films are significantly influenced by the configuration of Co particles and, consequently, the conduction regime rather than the size of sp2 carbon clusters in the a-C matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the systematic investigation of vortex-type spin torque oscillation in circular disks of highly spin-polarized Co2Fe0.4Mn0.6Si (CFMS) Heusler alloys. We fabricated the current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) devices with various disk diameters (D) using the layer stack of CFMS/Ag3Mg/CFMS. The gyrotropic motion of the vortex core was successfully excited for the CFMS circular disks with 0.2 µm  ⩽  D  ⩽  0.3 µm. The CPP-GMR device with D  =  0.2 µm exhibited the Q factor of more than 5000 and the large output power of 0.4 nW owing to the high coherency of vortex dynamics and the high spin-polarization of CFMS. However, the Q factor was remarkably decreased as D was reduced from 0.2 µm to 0.14 µm. The comparison with the calculated resonance frequencies suggested that this degradation of the Q factor was due to the transition of the oscillation mode from the vortex mode to other modes such as the low-coherent out-of-plane precession mode. The present experimental results also suggest that there exists an adequate disk size for the enhanced Q factor of the vortex-type spin torque oscillation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theoretically demonstrate a simple way to significantly enhance the spin/valley polarizations and tunneling magnetoresistnace (TMR) in a ferromagnetic-normal-ferromagnetic (FNF) silicene junction by applying a circularly polarized light in the off-resonant regime to the second ferromagnetic (FM) region. We show that the fully spin-polarized current can be realized in certain ranges of light intensity. Increasing the incident energy in the presence of light will induce a transition of perfect spin polarization from positive to negative or vice versa depending on the magnetic configuration (parallel or anti-parallel) of FNF junction. Additionally, under a circularly polarized light, valley polarization is very sensitive to electric field and the perfect valley polarization can be achieved even when staggered electric field is much smaller than exchange field. The most important result we would like to emphasize in this paper is that the perfect spin polarization and 100% TMR induced by a circularly polarized light are completely independent of barrier height in the normal region. Furthermore, the sign reversal of TMR can be observed when the polarized direction of light is changed. A condition for observing the 100% TMR is also reported. Our results are expected to be informative for real applications of a FNF silicene junction, especially in spintronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the adsorption effects of Ti atoms on the physical properties of zigzag silicene nanoribbons using the density functional theory combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function methods. The adsorption geometries, conductance spectra, current voltage curves, spin polarizations, magnetoresistance, and Seebeck coefficients are evaluated in different adsorption samples. Ti adatoms prefer sites inside the nanoribbons instead of on the edges. Two neighboring adatoms are attractively coupled and prefer being adsorbed on the same side. The giant magnetoresistance in nanoribbons of even width is usually greatly reduced, except in symmetric adsorption cases. Strong spin negative differential resistance phenomena can be observed and pure spin current can be produced by temperature gradient in specific cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed study of the Fe2 − xCoxMnSi (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.6) alloys has been carried out by investigating the samples by x-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, magnetization, transport and current spin polarization measurements. A perfectly ordered L21 phase is found to exist for x = 0.4. Competing magnetic interactions between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases are seen in the alloys with x < 0.2, whereas the AFM phase is completely absent for x ≥ 0.2 as revealed by the magnetization and resistivity data. The Curie temperature and saturation magnetization values increase with increase in the Co concentration. Anomalous, non metallic-like behaviour is observed for x = 0.4. Current spin polarization values of 0.61  ±  0.01 and 0.66  ±  0.01 were deduced for x = 0.2 and x = 0.4 respectively, using the point contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy . Considering the high spin polarization and Curie temperature, materials with x ≥ 0.2 appear to be very promising for spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]