38 - Spinel ferrite-based heterostructures for spintronics applications

Abstract

In the recent past, spinel ferrite heterostructures have become a key ingredient for new concepts of insulator spintronics and magnetoelectric devices. This is mainly because of the profusion of new phenomena at nano-scale levels and novel functionalities arising at the interface of ferrite heterostructures and thin films. In this chapter, initially, we provide a very brief theoretical understanding of spintronics followed by a historical background and recent literature survey on spinel ferrite-based heterostructure and thin films. Further, as the crystal structure of the ferrites and their material chemistry at the interface are the key to understanding the spin transport and spin polarization properties, therefore it will also be discussed in brief. In the next section, we present the spin polarization and tunneling magnetoresistance properties of ferrite heterostructures, which are grown by the epitaxial or any other physical thin film deposition technique. In the subsequent section of the chapter, the exotic physical phenomena which are relevant to the spintronics application, viz., metal–insulator transition and quantum Hall effect, in ferrite heterostructures will also be presented. We also present some recently reported results and advancements on these ferrites heterostructures for their applications in spintronics devices.