1. Epitaxial integration of the highly spin-polarized ferromagnetic semiconductor EuO with silicon and GaN.
- Author
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Schmehl, Andreas, Vaithyanathan, Venu, Herrnberger, Alexander, Thiel, Stefan, Richter, Christoph, Liberati, Marco, Heeg, Tassilo, Röckerath, Martin, Kourkoutis, Lena Fitting, Mühlbauer, Sebastian, Böni, Peter, Muller, David A., Barash, Yuri, Schubert, Jürgen, Idzerda, Yves, Mannhart, Jochen, and Schlom, Darrell G.
- Subjects
EPITAXY ,CRYSTAL growth ,MOLECULAR beam epitaxy ,FERROMAGNETIC materials ,FERROMAGNETISM ,MAGNETIC materials ,SEMICONDUCTORS - Abstract
Doped EuO is an attractive material for the fabrication of proof-of-concept spintronic devices. Yet for decades its use has been hindered by its instability in air and the difficulty of preparing and patterning high-quality thin films. Here, we establish EuO as the pre-eminent material for the direct integration of a carrier-concentration-matched half-metal with the long-spin-lifetime semiconductors silicon and GaN, using methods that transcend these difficulties. Andreev reflection measurements reveal that the spin polarization in doped epitaxial EuO films exceeds 90%, demonstrating that EuO is a half-metal even when highly doped. Furthermore, EuO is epitaxially integrated with silicon and GaN. These results demonstrate the high potential of EuO for spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
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