Inter-particle spin-polarized tunneling in arrays of magnetite nanocrystals

Nurit Taub, Alexander Tsukernik, Gil Markovich*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Inter-particle spin-polarized tunneling was measured in an organically capped magnetite nanocrystal (NC) array deposited between 30 nm spaced gold electrodes. Magnetoresistance (MR) measurements performed around the blocking temperature (Tb) of the magnetic moments of the particles in the array, which was relatively high (220 K), yielded negative MR values of the order of 10-25% under moderate magnetic fields of several kOe. The field dependence of the MR followed closely the square of the film's magnetization and its voltage dependence indicated maximal spin polarization around the Fermi level. These findings suggested that the measured MR is the result of spin-polarized tunneling between individual magnetite NCs acting as superparamagnetic spin polarizers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1933-1938
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Volume321
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2009

Funding

FundersFunder number
Levi Eshkol Foundation
Ministry of Science Culture & Sport Israel
Israel Science Foundation779/06

    Keywords

    • Magnetite nanocrystals
    • Spin-polarized transport
    • Superparamagnetism
    • Tunneling magnetoresistance

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