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Original Articles

Interface structure and magnetism of Fe3Si/GaAs(110) multilayers: An ab-initio study

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Pages 2699-2707 | Received 20 May 2008, Accepted 13 Jun 2008, Published online: 04 Dec 2010
 

Abstract

Ferromagnet-semiconductor (FM/SC) hybrid structures have attracted much interest in view of materials being suitable for spintronic devices. Such devices demand a high spin-polarization at the FM/SC interface, as is provided by Fe3Si. Here, we investigate the hybrid system consisting of Fe3Si and GaAs which is of special interest due to its tiny lattice mismatch. The multilayers containing 1–3 layer thick Fe3Si films are oriented in the (110) direction. Using the (110) orientation of GaAs has the advantage that no surface reconstruction has to be considered. Free GaAs(110) surfaces show only a rippling but no reconstruction. We investigate the structural and magnetic properties of thin layers of Fe3Si on GaAs(110) using density functional theory. Therefore we choose a multilayer geometry in order to avoid additional contributions from the surface. The ground state structure turns out to be the same, independently of the number of FM layers, and the rippled GaAs(110) surface is flattened if overgrown by Fe3Si. Moreover, we find the system being stable against diffusion effects which leads to average magnetic moments of the magnitude of bulk Fe3Si. Concerning the magnitude of the magnetic moments, our calculations suggest that Fe3Si/GaAs(110) may be a good candidate for magnetoelectronics.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank M.E. Gruner for reading the manuscript. This work has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the SFB 491 ‘Spin Structure and Spin Transport in Magnetic Heterostructures’.

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