Half-metallic CrO2 thin films for spintronic applications

Conduction electrons in CrO2, a metallic oxide are known to have only one kind of spin which makes it a very interesting material to study for spin dependent transport phenomena. Thin film growth of CrO2 for its different crystallographic orientations, namely (100) and (110) are found to be different on iso-structural TiO2 substrates and therefore, their transport and magnetic properties, that was confirmed with detailed X-ray diffraction and magnetic characterization. Low pressure growth of CrO2 was explored. Although CrO2 phase is possible at lower than atmospheric pressure, it is less pure than it's atmospheric pressure phase. On fabricated tunnel junctions, magneto-transport properties with (110) CrO2 and its natural oxide barrier shows TMR at low temperatures with energy barrier height of 0.4 eV.