5.05.11 00:00

Europium Monoxide - A Key Material for Spinelectronics?

A. Schmehl (Augsburg)

Electronic devices that utilize the electron spin offer the potential to be
faster and less energy consuming than conventional charge based electronics.
Nevertheless, the realization of magnetic random-access memories as well
as semiconductor based spin electronics crucially depends on identifying
materials that offer high spin-polarizations, that allow for the injection of
spin-polarized currents into semiconductors, and whose magnetism can be
controlled via electric instead of magnetic fields.

With its outstanding properties, the ferromagnetic semiconductor europium
monoxide (EuO, T(C) = 69 K) could be one of the key materials on the way
to the realization of commercial semiconductor-based spintronics. Europium
oxide exhibits a multitude of giant properties such as metal-to-insulator
transitions covering up to 13 orders of magnitude change in resistance,
colossal magneto-resistive effects that rank amongst the biggest for bulk
materials and the largest magneto-optic effects for any known material. With
its spin-polarization exceeding 90% and its ability to be epitaxially
integrated with silicon, GaN, and GaAs, EuO has a high potential to act as efficient spin-filter and spin-injector for semiconductor-based spintronics. In
addition, theory predicts EuO to become ferroelectric and even multiferroic under high levels of epitaxial strain. This unique property combination makes EuO a very interesting material, both for basic research as well as for proof-of-
concept devices.

 

(Seminarraum I)

Kategorie: Kolloquium