Giant Magnetoresistance in Magnetic Nanostructures and Spintronic Devices

Abstract

The injection magnetoresistance effect in SiO2(Co)/GaAs heterostructures, where SiO2(Co) is a granular SiO2 film containing Co nanoparticles, has been studied. This effect manifests itself in the avalanche breakdown mode and has extremely large values at room temperature due to the spin-dependent potential barrier. We consider application of the IMR effect and SiO2(Co)/GaAs heterostructures in spintronic devices – high sensitive magnetic sensors and field-effect transistors governed by applied magnetic field.