Termination layer compensated tunnelling magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Heusler compounds with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

ABSTRACT: Although high-tunnelling spin polarization has been observed in soft, ferromagnetic, and predicted for hard, ferrimagnetic Heusler materials, there has been no experimental observation to date of high-tunnelling magnetoresistance in the latter. Here we report the preparation of highly textured, polycrystalline Mn3Ge films on amorphous substrates, with very high magnetic anisotropy fields exceeding 7 T, making them technologically relevant. However, the small and negative tunnelling magnetoresistance that we find is attributed to predominant tunnelling from the lower moment Mn-Ge termination layers that are oppositely magnetized to the higher moment Mn-Mn layers. The net spin polarization of the current reflects the different proportions of the two distinct termination layers and their asso

SUBMITTER: Jeong J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735609 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature