Schottky barrier height of ferromagnet/Si(001) junctions

Abstract

The Schottky barrier height of ferromagnetic metal/semiconductor junctions is one of the most important parameters for the performance of semiconductor-based spin-electronic devices. The authors investigated the Schottky barrier height ϕB of ferromagnet/Si(001) junctions with various ferromagnetic metals (CoFe, CoFeB, and MnAs), and found that ϕB of epitaxial MnAs∕Si(001) junctions fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy was 0.16eV for electrons, which is much lower than ϕB (∼0.7eV) of CoFe∕Si(001) and CoFeB∕Si(001) junctions. This implies that MnAs is a promising ferromagnetic material for Si-based spin-electronic devices, especially for the source and drain of spin metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors.