Magneto-electronic properties and spin-resolved I-V curves of a Co/GeSe heterojunction diode: an ab initio study

L. MAKINISTIAN; E.A. ALBANESI

APPLIED PHYSICS. A - MATERIALS SCIENCE AND PROCESSING

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2013 vol. 111 p. 923 - 927

0947-8396

We present ab initio calculations of magnetoelectronic and transport properties of the interface of hcp Cobalt (001) and the intrinsic narrow-gap semiconductor germanium selenide (GeSe). Using a norm-conserving pseudopotentials scheme within DFT, we first model the interface with a supercell approach and focus on the spin-resolved densities of states and the magnetic moment (spin and orbital components) at the different atomic layers that form the device. We also report a series of cuts (perpendicular to the plane of the heterojunction) of the electronic and spin densities showing a slight magnetization of the first layers of the semiconductor. Finally, we model the device with a different scheme: using semiinfinite electrodes connected to the heterojunction. These latter calculations are based upon a nonequilibrium Green?s function approach that allows us to explore the spin-resolved electronic transport under a bias voltage (spin-resolved I?V curves), revealing features of potential applicability in spintronics.