Electronic Properties and Magnetism of VN/Ga₂O₂/VN Spin Valves

With the development of spintronics, the search for heterostructures with Curie temperatures higher than room temperature has become a top priority for all researchers. We calculated the electronic and magnetic properties of heterostructures constructed by VN with ferromagnetic half-metallic properties and Ga2O2 with nonmagnetic semiconducting properties using first-principles calculations. Our results show that the VN/Ga2O2 heterostructure not only has a Curie temperature well above room temperature but also has a 100% spin filtering effect. In addition, the ability to maintain perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) at -5 to 5% biaxial strain is an essential point for achieving high-density information storage. The spin-valve structure constructed by combining a monolayer VN and a monolayer Ga2O2 according to the ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic/ferromagnetic structure not only has the same 100% spin filtering effect and a Curie temperature well above room temperature but also the easy magnetization axis direction still points perfectly in the out-of-plane direction. Our study shows that the VN/Ga2O2 heterostructure and the VN/Ga2O2/VN spin-valve heterostructure are promising materials for low-dimensional spintronic devices.