Electrically Controlled All-AFM Tunnel Junctions on Silicon with Large Room-Temperature Magnetoresistance (Northwestern)

A new technical paper titled “Electrically Controlled All-Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions on Silicon with Large Room-Temperature Magnetoresistance” was published by researchers at Northwestern University, Universitat Jaume, California State University Northridge, Argonne National Lab, Politecnico diBari, and University of Messina.

Abstract
“Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are a pathway to spintronic memory and computing devices with unprecedented speed, energy efficiency, and bit density. Realizing this potential requires AFM devices with simultaneous electrical writing and reading of information, which are also compatible with established silicon-based manufacturing. Recent experiments have shown tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) readout in epitaxial AFM tunnel junctions. However, these TMR structures are not grown using a silicon-compatible deposition process, and controlling their AFM order required external magnetic fields. Here it is shown three-terminal AFM tunnel junctions based on the noncollinear antiferromagnet PtMn₃, sputter-deposited on silicon. The devices simultaneously exhibit electrical switching using electric currents, and electrical readout by a large room-temperature TMR effect. First-principles calculations explain the TMR in terms of the momentum-resolved spin-dependent tunneling conduction in tunnel junctions with noncollinear AFM electrodes.”

Find the technical paper here. Published March 2024. Find Northwestern University’s news release here.

J. Shi, S. Arpaci, V. Lopez-Dominguez, V. K. Sangwan, F. Mahfouzi, J. Kim, J. G. Athas, M. Hamdi, C. Aygen, H. Arava, C. Phatak, M. Carpentieri, J. S. Jiang, M. A. Grayson, N. Kioussis, G. Finocchio, M. C. Hersam, P. Khalili Amiri, Electrically Controlled All-Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions on Silicon with Large Room-Temperature Magnetoresistance. Adv. Mater. 2024, 2312008. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202312008.