Band Structure of EuO/Si Spin Contact: Justification for Silicon Spintronics

Abstract

Silicon spintronics requires injection of spin-polarized carriers into Si. An emerging approach is direct electrical injection from a ferromagnetic semiconductor - EuO being the prime choice. Functionality of the EuO/Si spin contact is determined by the interface band alignment. In particular, the band offset should fall within the 0.5-2 eV range. We employ soft-X-ray ARPES to probe the electronic structure of the buried EuO/Si interface with momentum resolution and chemical specificity. The band structure reveals a conduction band offset of 1.0 eV attesting the technological potential of the EuO/Si system.