Enhanced tunneling electroresistance effect by interface engineering

A high and stable tunneling electroresistance (TER) effect is critical for the storage application of multiferroic tunnel junctions (MFTJs). A large interface dipole can significantly modulate the effective barrier height, producing metallic-insulating transition of barrier, which can be used to obtain a high TER effect. Our first-principles calculations of Co-TiO2-(BaO-TiO2)m-CoO-Co (m = 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) MFTJ [1], Co-(TiO2-BaO)m-Co MFTJ [2] and Co2MnSi/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 MFTJs [3] demonstrate that the large interface dipole can be obtained by means of interface oxidation or designing interfaces with large difference in ionic radius. And the TER effect can indeed be greatly enhanced through the large interface dipole. These provide guidance for further improving TER effect through the interface engineering. (Note: These three works have been published in references [1] - [3].)