Electronic transport in nearly compensated half-metallic FeMnGa based-junction

Abstract

The all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method is used to investigate the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the cubic C1b FeMnGa. We show that FeMnGa is a spin-gapless semiconductor, and by changing the lattice constant, we obtain a nearly compensated half-metallic ferrimagnet. This makes it suitable for spintronic devices. Then, a combined non-equilibrium Green’s function and density functional theory are used to show that both symmetric and asymmetric FeMnGa/Pd/FeMnGa junctions present infinite giant magneto-resistance, with higher conductance obtained for the symmetric junction with Fe–Pd interfaces.