Synthesis of low-moment CrVTiAl: a potential room temperature spin filter

Abstract

The efficient production of spin-polarized currents at room temperature is fundamental to the advancement of spintronics. Spin-filter materials --- semiconductors with unequal band gaps for each spin channel --- can generate spin-polarized current without the need for spin-polarized contacts. In addition, a spin-filter material with zero magnetic moment would have the advantage of not producing strong fringing fields that would interfere with neighboring electronic components and limit the volume density of devices. The quaternary Heusler compound CrVTiAl has been predicted to be a zero-moment spin-filter material with a Curie temperature in excess of 1000 K. In this work, CrVTiAl has been synthesized with a lattice constant of $a=6.15\mathring{A}$. Magnetization measurements reveal an exceptionally low moment of $\mu =2.3\times 10^{-3}{\mu }_B/f.u.$ at a field of ${\mu }_{0}H=2T$, that is independent of temperature between T = 10 K and 400 K, consistent with the predicted zero-moment ferrimagnetism. Transport measurements reveal a combination of metallic and semiconducting components to the resistivity. Combining a zero-moment spin-filter material with nonmagnetic electrodes would lead to an essentially nonmagnetic spin injector. These results suggest that CrVTiAl is a promising candidate for further research in the field of spintronics.

Accepted to Appl. Phys. Lett

References in corpus (3)

• Observation of the Spin-Seebeck Effect in a Ferromagnetic Semiconductor
• Half-Metallic Ferromagnetism in the Heusler Compound Co${}_2$FeSi revealed by Resistivity, Magnetoresistance, and Anomalous Hall Effect measurements
• Antiferromagnetic phase of the gapless semiconductor V3Al

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Competing magnetic and spin gap-less semiconducting behaviour in fully compensated ferrimagnet CrVTiAl: Theory and Experiment
• A first-principles DFT+GW study of spin-filter and spin-gapless semiconducting Heusler compounds
• FeRhCrSi: A new spin semimetal with room temperature spin-valve behavior
• Design of L2_1-type antiferromagnetic semiconducting full-Heusler compounds: A first principles DFT+GW study
• Structural and electronic properties of the spin-filter material CrVTiAl with disorder
• Electrical and magnetic properties of thin films of the spin-filter material CrVTiAl
• Simulation study of ballistic spin-MOSFET devices with ferromagnetic channels based on some Heusler and oxide compounds