1. Using structural disorder to enhance the magnetism and spin-polarization in FexSi1-x thin films for spintronics
- Author
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Karel, J, Zhang, YN, Bordel, C, Stone, KH, Chen, TY, Jenkins, CA, Smith, DJ, Hu, J, Wu, RQ, Heald, SM, Kortright, JB, and Hellman, F
- Subjects
amorphous ,thin film magnetism ,spintronics ,x-ray absorption ,x-ray magnetic circular dichroism ,density functional theory ,Materials Engineering - Abstract
Amorphous FexSi1-x thin films exhibit a striking enhancement in magnetization compared to crystalline films with the same composition (0.45 < x < 0.75), and xray magnetic circular dichroism reveals an enhancement in both spin and orbital moments in the amorphous films. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reproduce this enhanced magnetization and also show a relatively large spinpolarization at the Fermi energy, also seen experimentally in Andreev reflection. Theory and experiment show that the amorphous materials have a decreased number of nearest neighbors and reduced number density relative to the crystalline samples of the same composition; the associated decrease in Fe-Si neighbors reduces the hybridization of Fe orbitals, leading to the enhanced moment.
- Published
- 2014