Rational Design of Half-Metallic Heterostructures

Abstract

We present a rational approach to the design of half-metallic heterostructures which allows the design of an infinite number of half-metallic heterostructures. The wide range of materials that can be made half-metallic using our approach makes it possible to engineer materials with tunable characteristic properties, for example low intrinsic magnetic damping, small magnetic moment or perpendicular anisotropy. We demonstrate the proposed design scheme for a series of transition metal heterostructures based on the B2 crystal structure.