title: Magnetic coherent tunnel junctions with periodic grating barrier.
abstract: A new spintronic theory has been developed for the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with single-crystal barrier. The barrier will be treated as a diffraction grating with intralayer periodicity, the diffracted waves of tunneling electrons thus contain strong coherence, both in charge and especially in spin. The theory can answer the two basic problems present in MgO-based MTJs: (1) Why does the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) oscillate with the barrier thickness? (2) Why is the TMR still far away from infinity when the two electrodes are both half-metallic? Other principal features of TMR can also be explained and reproduced by the present work. It also provides possible ways to modulate the oscillation of TMR, and to enhance TMR so that it can tend to infinity. Within the theory, the barrier, as a periodic diffraction grating, can get rid of the confinement in width, it can vary from nanoscale to microscale. Based on those results, a future-generation MTJ is proposed where the three pieces can be fabricated separately and then assembled together, it is especially appropriate for the layered materials, e.g., MoS2 and graphite, and most feasible for industries.
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Henan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Mingwen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rui
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Zhikuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tao