We report the growth of ultra-thin indium oxide layers using the dc-magnetron sputtering method. We demonstrate that good quality tunnel barriers made of indium oxide can be routinely fabricated and employed in spintronic-related devices. Simple magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) were fabricated in a cross geometry using ex situ thermally evaporated cobalt and permalloy. Our best junctions obey the Rowell criteria for tunneling and exhibit a tunnel magnetoresistance of 15% at 100 K. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We report the growth of single-phase, stoichiometric polycrystalline thin films of the half-Heusler ferromagnet NiMnSb, predicted to be half-metallic, on single crystal (100) InSb substrates heated at 200 °C by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The NiMnSb target used for the PLD deposition was synthesized by arc melting and had a saturation magnetization, MS (5K) ≤ 4μB/formula unit. The films exhibited saturation magnetization, MS (5K) ≤ 4μB/formula unit and coercive fields of 2 Oe at 300 K, indicating good structural quality. The temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization shows that at low temperature (T < 200 K) the system behaves like a Heisenberg ferromagnet as expected for a half-metal, while at T > 200 K behaves like an itinerant ferromagnet. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.