Above-room Curie temperature and barrier-layer-dependent tunneling magnetoresistance in 1T-CrO2 monolayer based magnetic tunnel junctions. Issue 36 (7th September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Jie; Tang, Huan; Gan, Min; Chen, Hong; Shi, Xuan; Yuan, Hongkuan
• Is Part Of: Physical chemistry chemical physics. Volume 24:Issue 36(2022)
• Page Start: 22007
• Page End: 22015
• Publication Date: 2022-09-07
• Subjects: Chemistry, Physical and theoretical -- Periodicals; 541.3
• DOI: 10.1039/d2cp01924h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-9076

Abstract

Abstract : 1T-CrO2 monolayer based MTJs show a barrier-layer-dependent tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio. Abstract : van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures based on two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic materials hold great potential applications in spintronics. Using the density functional theory (DFT) method and first-principles quantum transport simulation, we studied the structures, magnetic properties and spin-resolved transport of 1T-CrO2 monolayer (ML) based vdW magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Owing to a high Curie temperature ( T C ) of 392 K and a moderate magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of 94 μeV of the ferromagnetic 1T-CrO2 monolayer, Cu(111)|CrO2 | n ML-Gr|CrO2 |Cu(111) MTJs were built. Our results reveal that their tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratios are dependent on the number of Gr barrier layers within a working bias voltage of 1 V. For the thin barrier layers ( n = 1–2), the maintained TMR ratios can reach a giant value of about 1 × 10 4 %, while there appears a decreasing trend with the increasing bias voltage for thick Gr layers ( n = 3–5). The barrier-layer-dependent phenomenon is attributed to the decreasing transmission magnitude with increasing bias voltage in a parallel configuration (PC), which is as small as that in an anti-parallel configuration (APC) eventually. Our results would provide some guidance for future experimental fabrications of these 2D materials based MTJs.