2015/09/30 by Simon Zihlmann, Péter Makk, C. A. F. Vaz +1
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Ferromagnetism #Graphene #Graphene research and applications #Hexagonal boron nitride #Magnetic field #Magnetization #Materials science #Metallurgy #Nanostructure #Nanotechnology #Optoelectronics #Oxide #Permalloy #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Semiconductor materials and devices #Spintronics #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2053-1583/3/1/011008
published as 2D Materials, 3, 011008, 2016 · 7 pages, 6 figures
openalex publication_date 2016/02/18 · arxiv created 2016/02/28 · arxiv updated 2016/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Ferromagnetic contacts are widely used to inject spin polarized currents into non-magnetic materials such as semiconductors or 2-dimensional materials like graphene. In these systems, oxidation of the ferromagnetic materials poses an intrinsic limitation on device performance. Here we investigate the role of <em>ex situ</em> transferred chemical vapour deposited hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as an oxidation barrier for nanostructured cobalt and permalloy electrodes. The chemical state of the ferromagnets was investigated using x-ray photoemission electron microscopy because of its high sensitivity and lateral resolution.Wehave compared the oxide thickness formed on ferromagnetic nanostructures covered by hBN to uncovered reference structures. Our results show that hBN reduces the oxidation rate of ferromagnetic nanostructures suggesting that it could be used as an ultra-thin protection layer in future spintronic devices.