Spintronic properties of the interface between Si(111) and 3C-SiC(111) grown by the method of coordinated substitution of atoms

Abstract

The properties of the interface between Si(111) and 3C-SiC(111) grown by the method of coordinated substitution of atoms were studied by the density functional theory in spin-polarized approximation. The most favourable atomic configuration at the interface was found. It is shown that SiC faces Si with the carbon plane, and SiC separates 3 Si atoms out of 16 from the second layer of substrate atoms. As a result, the 3 Si atoms in the substrate each have 3 bonds instead of 4, and the 3 C atoms in the bottom layer of the SiC film also have 3 bonds. It is these atoms that have a magnetic moment due to the unpaired p-electrons. It was found that for the electron with spin "majority" this interface is an ordinary semiconductor, and for the electron with spin "minority" it is a two-dimensional ferromagnetic metal. Keywords: silicon carbide, ferromagnetic semi-metals, terahertz radiation, density functional theory, spintronics.