Magnetic and electronic properties of D022-Mn3Ge (001) films

Oriented thin films of Mn3Ge with the tetragonal D0(22) structure, grown on strontium titanate substrates, exhibit a low magnetization M-s = 73 kA m(-1) combined with high uniaxial anisotropy K-u = 0.91 MJ m(-3) at 300 K, making them potentially useful for thermally stable sub-10 nm spin torque memory elements. The highly ordered epitaxial Mn3Ge (001) films show 46% diffusive spin polarization at the Fermi level, measured by point contact Andreev reflection. Density functional calculations show that the compounds are ferrimagnetic, with anisotropic spin polarization at the Fermi level. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4754123]