Co/AlP/Co, Co/GaN/Co as magnetic tunnel junctions

TL;DR

This study explores the potential of wide band-gap semiconductors AlP and GaN as insulating barriers in magnetic tunnel junctions, revealing their symmetry filtering effects and significant tunneling magnetoresistance, thus advancing spintronic device design.

Contribution

It provides a systematic first-principles analysis of Co/AlP/Co and Co/GaN/Co MTJs, highlighting their symmetry filtering properties and high TMR, which are novel insights for semiconductor-based spintronics.

Findings

Both AlP and GaN filter Δ₁ symmetry of Bloch states at Γ-point.

Large TMR of ~300% observed in Co/AlP/Co MTJs.

TMR of ~300% at 1.25 eV below Fermi energy in Co/GaN/Co MTJs.

Abstract

AlP and GaN are wide band-gap semiconductors (SC) uses in opto-electronic industry as light emitting diodes. Here we investigate it as future perspective candidate for insulating barrier in magnetic tunnel junctions. We employ density functional theory for ground state electronic properties and non-equilibrium Green's function method for quantum transport and examined Co/AlP/Co and Co/GaN/Co MTJs. We find that both AlP and GaN valance band maxima are predominantly made with $p_z$-type orbitals while conduction band minima are $s$-type symmetry. We find that both AlP and GaN filter $\Delta_1$ symmetry of Bloch states at $\Gamma$-point and transmission coefficient at any energy level in-between the band-gap of materials, is mostly driven by $\Delta_1$ symmetry of Bloch states tunnel via $\Gamma$-point in first Brillouin zones. We find large magneto-resistance $\sim$300\% in Co/AlP/Co MTJs at zero-bias. In Co/GaN/Co MTJs we find $\sim$300\% TMR at 1.25 eV below the Fermi energy ($E_{F}-1.25$)~eV, while $\sim$10\% TMR around $E_F$ in zero-bias calculations. We notice that both majority and minority $\Delta_{2'}$ symmetry of Bloch states with rather different $spd$-orbitals compositions tunnel in Co[0001]/AlP[0001] MTJs and exhibit non-zero TMR, whereas in Co[111]/GaN[0001] MTJs, the both majority and minority $\Delta_1$ symmetry of Bloch states with different energy-gradient tunnels at Fermi energy level along [111] transport direction. Our work accentuate the process for systematic, efficient, accurate and versatile framework to design the semiconductors based MTJs for low power electronics.