High quality Fe3-deltaO4/InAs hybrid structure for electrical spin injection

TL;DR

This paper reports the epitaxial growth of high-quality Fe3-deltaO4 films on InAs substrates, demonstrating their potential for electrical spin injection in spintronic devices through detailed structural and magnetic characterization.

Contribution

It presents a novel method for growing epitaxial Fe3-deltaO4 on InAs with controlled composition and magnetic properties, advancing spin injection technology.

Findings

Successful epitaxial growth of Fe3-deltaO4 on InAs

Controlled oxygen content in Fe3-deltaO4 films

Magnetic properties suitable for spintronics

Abstract

Single Crystalline Fe3-deltaO4 (0<=delta<=0.33) films have been epitaxially grown on InAs (001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy using O2 as source of active oxygen. Under optimum growth conditions in-situ real time reflection high-energy electron diffraction patterns along with ex-situ atomic force microscopy indicated the (001) Fe3-deltaO4 to be grown under step-flow-growth mode with a characteristic surface reconstruction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrate the possibility to obtain iron oxides with compositions ranging from Fe3O4 to gamma-Fe2O3. Superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer at 300K shows well behaved magnetic properties giving therefore credibility to the promise of iron based oxides for spintronic applications.