Electrically Controlled All‐Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions on Silicon with Large Room‐Temperature Magnetoresistance
Jiacheng Shi, Sevdenur Arpaci, Víctor López‐Domínguez, Vinod K. Sangwan, Farzad Mahfouzi, Jinwoong Kim, Jordan Athas, Mohammad Hamdi, Can Aygen, Hanu Arava, Charudatta Phatak, Mario Carpentieri, J. S. Jiang, M. Grayson, Nicholas Kioussis, Giovanni Finocchio, Mark C. Hersam, Pedram Khalili Amiri
Abstract
Abstract Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are a pathway to spintronic memory and computing devices with unprecedented speed, energy efficiency, and bit density. Realizing this potential requires AFM devices with simultaneous electrical writing and reading of information, which are also compatible with established silicon‐based manufacturing. Recent experiments have shown tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) readout in epitaxial AFM tunnel junctions. However, these TMR structures are not grown using a silicon‐compatible deposition process, and controlling their AFM order required external magnetic fields. Here are shown three‐terminal AFM tunnel junctions based on the noncollinear antiferromagnet PtMn 3 , sputter‐deposited on silicon. The devices simultaneously exhibit electrical switching using electric currents, and electrical readout by a large room‐temperature TMR effect. First‐principles calculations explain the TMR in terms of the momentum‐resolved spin‐dependent tunneling conduction in tunnel junctions with noncollinear AFM electrodes.