Numerical simulation of giant magnetoresistance resonant tunneling diodes

tunneling diodes Christian Ertler and Jaroslav Fabian Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany email: Semiconductor spintronics [1] has benefited greatly from the discovery of novel magnetic semiconductors such as GaMnAs. Indeed, this material has boosted prospects for field effect, bipolar, as well as tunneling spintronic devices at temperatures greater than 100 K. What is still missing are specific device proposals for this material to be incorporated in novel or conventional device structures. At present the most explored spintronic devices appear to be resonant tunnel diodes [2] that use dilute magnetic semiconductors like ZnMnSe as active magnetic materials. These diodes, which are used for spin filtering, are projected to lead to applications in magnetic sensing and, perhaps more prominently, in reprogrammable logic.