Atomic Interfacial Structures in Fe/GaAs Films

Author

Fleet, L.R. ; Kobayashi, Hideo ; Ohno, Y. ; Hirohata, Atsufumi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron., Univ. of York, York, UK

Volume

47

Issue

10

fYear

2011

Firstpage

2756

Lastpage

2759

Abstract

We discuss the effect of the atomic interfacial structure on the Schottky barrier height in Fe/GaAs films. HRTEM image simulations, produced using the microscopy software JEMS, were used to predict the interfacial structure of Fe/GaAs thin films. Comparisons between experimental images, obtained using a JEOL FS2200 microscope, and the image simulations show the interfaces to contain various structures. This leads to regions with different barrier properties giving a distribution of barrier heights. This would create preferential regions for tunnelling across the film which would dominate device characteristics.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Schottky barriers; atomic structure; gallium arsenide; interface structure; iron; semiconductor epitaxial layers; semiconductor growth; spin polarised transport; transmission electron microscopy; tunnelling; Fe-GaAs; HRTEM image simulations; JEOL FS2200 microscopy; Schottky barrier height; atomic interfacial structure; barrier properties; epitaxial films; high resolution transmission electron microscopy; microscopy software JEMS; spin injection; tunnelling; Epitaxial growth; Gallium arsenide; Iron; Schottky barriers; Surface reconstruction; Temperature measurement; Tunneling; Fe; GaAs and Schottky barrier; spin-polarized injection; spintronics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2011.2156388

Filename

6027650