Ferromagnetic MnGaN thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for spintronics applications

Perpendicularly magnetized flat thin films of antiperovskite Mn67Ga24N9 were grown on an MgO(001) substrate by reactive sputtering using an argon/1% nitrogen gas mixture and a Mn70Ga30 target. The films showed a saturation magnetization of 80 –100 kA/m, an effective perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) energy of 0.1–0.2 MJ/m3, and a Curie temperature of 660–740 K. Upon increasing the N composition, the films transformed from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic as expected in the stoichiometric Mn3GaN phase. Point contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy revealed that the ferromagnetic MnGaN has a current spin polarization of 57%, which is comparable to D022-MnGa. These findings suggest that MnGaN is a promising PMA layer for future spintronics devices.