Abstract:
Semiconductor spintronics traditionally utilizes ferromagnetic semiconductors. Such semiconductors are, however, rare and have low Curie temperatures. Recent observation of a large magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnet (AFM) based tunnel junction opens the prospect for utilizing AFM semiconductors instead. Promising candidates are antiferromagnetic I-Mn-V compounds. Two such compounds, LiMnAs and CuMnAs, were recently synthetized by MBE. LiMnAs is a room-temperature antiferromagnetic semiconductor, but it is problematic due to the reactive nature of Li. CuMnAs does not suffer from such issues and it is also a room-temperature antifferomagnet, but it is a semimetal. Little is know experimentally about most of the other I-Mn-V compounds. We performed a series of DFT calculations, concentrating mostly on various CuMn-V compounds, to understand their electronic and magnetic properties.