The Growth of Giant Magnetoresistance Films on Silicon Substrates: Opportunites, Challenges, and Impediments

Published

October 12, 2021

Author(s)

William F. Egelhoff Jr., Robert McMichael, P J. Chen, W. Wyatt Miller, D Barak, Cedric J. Powell

Abstract

One of the most promising opportunities in the rapidly emerging field of spintronics is the integration of ultrathin magnetic films on Si substrates for the direct injection of spin-polarized electrons into Si.[1,2] One of the most interesting combinations would involve so-called giant magnetoresistance (GMR) spin valves. GMR spin valves have the property of changing their resistivity in response to the presence of a magnetic field, and are termed spin valves since their magnetic state acts as a valve controlling electron flow.[2] This property makes them suitable as magnetic field sensors,[3,4] and they are presently of great technological importance as the read-head in hard-disk drives. Another important application of GMR spin valves is as the memory element in magnetoresistive random access memory chips (MRAM).[3] MRAM chips hold great potential as non-volatile memory since a spin valve can be designed to have stable states of high and low resistivity.

Citation

International Symposium Semiconductor Device Research

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

current perpendicular-to-the-plane (C.P., giant magneto resistance (GAR), giant magneto resistance (GAR), resistivity, silicon substrates, spin valves

Citation

Egelhoff Jr., W. , McMichael, R. , Chen, P. , Miller, W. , Barak, D. and Powell, C. (2021), The Growth of Giant Magnetoresistance Films on Silicon Substrates: Opportunites, Challenges, and Impediments, International Symposium Semiconductor Device Research (Accessed October 14, 2025)