Semiconductor quantum well magnetic memory using confinement from proximity exchange fields for high magnetoresistances in a field-effect transistor

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel quantum well device with ferromagnetic insulators that can achieve extremely high magnetoresistance, potentially surpassing 10,000%, and could enable advanced magnetic memory and memtransistor applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new quantum well-based device utilizing proximity exchange fields for high magnetoresistance, advancing spintronic memory technology beyond traditional magnetic tunnel junctions.

Findings

Potential for magnetoresistance exceeding 10,000% at room temperature

Device operates with maximal MR at charge neutrality

Electrostatic gating enables memtransistor functionality

Abstract

There is a growing demand for highly-performant memories and memristive technologies for use in in-memory computing. Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have thus far addressed this need in the field of spintronics. Despite their low write power and high speeds, MTJs are limited by their modest on/off ratio at room temperature, which motivates a search for beyond-MTJ spintronic devices. In this work, we propose a device that uses two layers of ferromagnetic insulator (FMI) cladding a semiconductor QW, which is able to modulate the QW bandgap via electronic confinement resulting from proximity magnetization at the interfaces of the quantum well depending on the relative magnetization of the FMI layers. We predict that this device has the potential for very high magnetoresistances (MRs) possibly exceeding 10,000% at room temperature. We also predict that this device will operate with maximal MR in charge neutrality, and that electrostatic gating may promote the device to act as a magnetic memtransistor. This motivates the search for candidate materials and ultimately experimental demonstration of magnetic QW memories or memtransistors, which may have the potential to advance the state of the art in logic, memory, or neuromorphic circuits.