title: Spin-dependent transport properties of Fe3O4/MoS2/Fe3O4 junctions.
abstract: Magnetite is a half-metal with a high Curie temperature of 858 K, making it a promising candidate for magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Yet, initial efforts to exploit its half metallic nature in Fe3O4/MgO/Fe3O4 MTJ structures have been far from promising. Finding suitable barrier layer materials, which keep the half metallic nature of Fe3O4 at the interface between Fe3O4 layers and barrier layer, is one of main challenges in this field. Two-dimensional (2D) materials may be good candidates for this purpose. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductor with distinctive electronic, optical, and catalytic properties. Here, we show based on the first principle calculations that Fe3O4 keeps a nearly fully spin polarized electron band at the interface between MoS2 and Fe3O4. We also present the first attempt to fabricate the Fe3O4/MoS2/Fe3O4 MTJs. A clear tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) signal was observed below 200 K. Thus, our experimental and theoretical studies indicate that MoS2 can be a good barrier material for Fe3O4 based MTJs. Our calculations also indicate that junctions incorporating monolayer or bilayer MoS2 are metallic.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Han-Chun
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, P.R. China.|KSU-Aramco Center, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.|School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Cormac Ó
authors.initials: CÓ
authors.lastname: Coileáin
authors.affiliation: KSU-Aramco Center, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mourad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abid
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Ozhet
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mauit
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.|National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan.
authors.forename: Askar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Syrlybekov
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Hongjun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: CRANN, School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Riley
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gatensby
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jing Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Huajun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Electronic Engineering Institute, Hefei, 230037, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: CRANN, School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Georg S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Duesberg
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Hong-Zhou
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: KSU-Aramco Center, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abid
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and CRANN, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Igor V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Shvets