| Spintronics is a multidisciplinary field of which central theme is the active manupilation of spin degrees of freedom in solid-state systems. Achievements of a giant tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) and a large current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) at room temperature (RT) are currently the most topical fields in spintronics, which have potential applications to Gbit-MRAM and HDD beyond Tb/in2, respectively. Spin transfer torque (STT) induced by spin-polarized current is also indispensable in spintronics, which gives rise to magnetization switching and microwave oscillation in spintronics nano-devices. The giant TMR, large CPP-GMR and low current STT switching can be potentially created by highly spin-polarized current. Therefore, half-metallic ferromagnets (HMFs) with 100% spin polarization at Fermi level represent a class of materials which attract a lot of attention to their applications in spintronics. In this talk a giant TMR, a large CPP-GMR and the low-current STT switching are demonstrated using epitaxial nano-devices with Co-based half-metallic full-Heusler alloys and controlling the interface structures. |
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