Abstract
The quasi-periodic magnetic domains in metallic Fe-silicide nanowires self-assembled on the Si(110)-16 × 2 surface have been observed at room temperature by direct imaging of both the topographic and magnetic structures using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. The spin-polarized differential conductance (dI/dV) map of the rectangular-sectional Fe-silicide nanowire with a width and height larger than 36 and 4 nm, respectively, clearly shows an array of almost parallel streak domains that alternate an enhanced (reduced) density of states over in-plane (out-of-plane) magnetized domains with a magnetic period of 5.0 ± 1.0 nm. This heterostructure of magnetic Fe-silicide nanowires epitaxially integrated with the Si(110)-16 × 2 surface will have a significant impact on the development of Si-based spintronic nanodevices.
Highlights
Recent investigations have shown that the heterostructures of magnetic transition-metal silicides grown epitaxially on silicon substrates are potential candidates for spin injection into silicon, because magnetic transition-metal silicides possess a large electron-spin polarization, and because they form an atomically smooth interface with silicon to achieve highly efficient spin injection [1,2,3].silicon substrates have been regarded as ideal hosts for spin transport because of their long spin relaxation time, which leads to a long spin diffusion length in spintronic devices [4,5]
We report the direct imaging of the magnetic structures of self-assembled metallic Fe-silicide NWs on the Si(110)-16 × 2 surface using SP-Scanning tunneling microscope (STM)/STS measurements at room temperature (RT)
We have imaged the magnetic structures of self-assembled metallic Fe-silicide NWs epitaxially
Summary
Recent investigations have shown that the heterostructures of magnetic transition-metal silicides grown epitaxially on silicon substrates are potential candidates for spin injection into silicon, because magnetic transition-metal silicides possess a large electron-spin polarization, and because they form an atomically smooth interface with silicon to achieve highly efficient spin injection [1,2,3]. It is highly desirable to fabricate high-quality heterostructures of magnetic transition-metal silicide nanowires (NWs) grown epitaxially on silicon surfaces because the spins act coherently within magnetic NWs to modulate electron transport in a single direction, producing unusual ferromagnetic properties [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Our results unambiguously show that self-assembled metallic Fe-silicide NWs on the Si(110)-16 × 2 surface are ferromagnetically ordered at RT This heterojunction of magnetic Fe-silicide NWs epitaxially integrated with Si(110)-16 × 2 surface will have a significant impact on the development of Si-based spintronic nanodevices working at RT
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