Insulator-to-Metallic Spin-Filtering in 2D-Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Based on Hexagonal Boron Nitride

We report on the integration of atomically thin 2D insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) tunnel barriers into magnetic tunnel junctions (2D-MTJs) by fabricating two illustrative systems (Co/h-BN/Co and Co/h-BN/Fe) and by discussing h-BN potential for metallic spin filtering. The h-BN is directly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS nano 2018-05, Vol.12 (5), p.4712-4718
Main Authors: Piquemal-Banci, Maëlis, Galceran, Regina, Godel, Florian, Caneva, Sabina, Martin, Marie-Blandine, Weatherup, Robert S, Kidambi, Piran R, Bouzehouane, Karim, Xavier, Stephane, Anane, Abdelmadjid, Petroff, Frédéric, Fert, Albert, Dubois, Simon Mutien-Marie, Charlier, Jean-Christophe, Robertson, John, Hofmann, Stephan, Dlubak, Bruno, Seneor, Pierre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical Sciences
Condensed Matter
Material chemistry
Physics
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Summary:We report on the integration of atomically thin 2D insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) tunnel barriers into magnetic tunnel junctions (2D-MTJs) by fabricating two illustrative systems (Co/h-BN/Co and Co/h-BN/Fe) and by discussing h-BN potential for metallic spin filtering. The h-BN is directly grown by chemical vapor deposition on prepatterned Co and Fe stripes. Spin-transport measurements reveal tunnel magneto-resistances in these h-BN-based MTJs as high as 12% for Co/h-BN/h-BN/Co and 50% for Co/h-BN/Fe. We analyze the spin polarizations of h-BN/Co and h-BN/Fe interfaces extracted from experimental spin signals in light of spin filtering at hybrid chemisorbed/physisorbed h-BN, with support of ab initio calculations. These experiments illustrate the strong potential of h-BN for MTJs and are expected to ignite further investigations of 2D materials for large signal spin devices.
ISSN:1936-0851
1936-086X
DOI:10.1021/acsnano.8b01354