Half-metallic CrAs nanosheet for magnetic tunnel junctions

The research of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) has scientific and technical significance for promoting the development of information storage technology, promoting spintronics and realizing higher-density integrated circuits. At present, mainly by improving the material and designing alternative structures, the performance and reliability of the MTJs can be enhanced. Recently, it has been reported that the monolayer CrAs is expected to be a ferromagnetic half-metal with high Curie temperature. Here, using DFT+U, we investigate the magnetic and spin-dependent transport properties in a MTJ made of half-metallic CrAs nanosheet. The magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) along the z axis is 6370.1em0exμeV per Cr, and the ferromagnetism and out-of-plane easy magnetization are not affected by biaxial strain. In addition, the spin-dependent transport features of two MTJs with arsenene inserted in the CrAs layer were theoretically developed and investigated. The findings reveal that tunneling magnetoresistance ratio peaks at approximately equal to 10¹⁰ and remains more than approximately equal to 10⁶ even when subjected to bias voltages as high as 1 V. Moreover, 100% spin-filtering effects can be observed in the devices. Our research offers viable MTJs possibilities for the next spintronic devices.