Half-Metallic Digital Ferromagnetic Heterostructure Composed of aδ-Doped Layer of Mn in Si
| Autor: | Kai Liu, C. Y. Fong, John E. Pask, Lin H. Yang, M. C. Qian, Warren E. Pickett |
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| Rok vydání: | 2006 |
| Předmět: |
Condensed Matter - Materials Science
Materials science Condensed matter physics Spintronics Doping General Physics and Astronomy Heterojunction 02 engineering and technology Magnetic semiconductor Condensed Matter::Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Hall Effect 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology 01 natural sciences 7. Clean energy Condensed Matter::Materials Science Ferromagnetism 0103 physical sciences Antiferromagnetism Curie temperature Condensed Matter::Strongly Correlated Electrons Half-metal 010306 general physics 0210 nano-technology |
| Zdroj: | Physical Review Letters. 96 |
| ISSN: | 1079-7114 0031-9007 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/physrevlett.96.027211 |
| Popis: | We propose and investigate the properties of a digital ferromagnetic heterostructure (DFH) consisting of a $\delta$-doped layer of Mn in Si, using \textit{ab initio} electronic-structure methods. We find that (i) ferromagnetic order of the Mn layer is energetically favorable relative to antiferromagnetic, and (ii) the heterostructure is a two-dimensional half metallic system. The metallic behavior is contributed by three majority-spin bands originating from hybridized Mn-$d$ and nearest-neighbor Si-$p$ states, and the corresponding carriers are responsible for the ferromagnetic order in the Mn layer. The minority-spin channel has a calculated semiconducting gap of 0.25 eV. Analysis of the total and partial densities of states, band structure, Fermi surfaces and associated charge density reveals the marked two-dimensional nature of the half metallicity. The band lineup is found to be favorable for retaining the half metal character to near the Curie temperature ($T_{C}$). Being Si based and possibly having a high $T_{C}$ as suggested by an experiment on dilutely doped Mn in Si, the heterostructure may be of special interest for integration into mature Si technologies for spintronic applications. Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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