Spin Filtering in Two-Dimensional Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Tula R. Paudel
Department of Physics
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
The recently discovered two-dimensional van der Waals magnets have attracted a lot of attention from the research community. In my presentation, I will briefly survey the field, and discuss the unique properties they display and the applications they drive using a prototypical magnetic semiconductor, Chromium triiodide (CrI3). The first-principles methods based on density functional theory are reliable methods for exploring spin-dependent transport in tunnel junctions. In a particular density functional theory study of a tunnel junction involving face-centered cubic Cu (111) electrodes and a CrI3 tunnel barrier, we find about 100% spin polarization of the tunneling current and tunneling magnetoresistance of about 3,000% associated with a change of magnetic ordering in CrI3, consistent with experimental observations. We interpret these results in terms of the spin and wave-vector dependent evanescent states in CrI3 which control the tunneling conductance. Our results elucidate the mechanisms of spin filtering in CrI3 tunnel junctions and provide important insights for the design of magnetoresistive devices based on 2D magnetic crystals.
March 3, 2021
4:00 pm
Zoom Meeting: See flyer for details
Everyone Welcome!
