Spintronic properties of the interface between Si(111) and 3$C$-SiC(111) grown by the method of coordinated substitution of atoms

S. A. Kukushkin^a, A. V. Osipov^b, E. V. Osipova<sup>b

a</sup> Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
^b Institute of Problems of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

Abstract: The properties of the interface between Si(111) and 3$C$-SiC(111) grown by the method of coordinated substitution of atoms were studied by the density functional theory in spin-polarized approximation. The most favourable atomic configuration at the interface was found. It is shown that SiC faces Si with the carbon plane, and SiC separates 3 Si atoms out of 16 from the second layer of substrate atoms. As a result, the 3 Si atoms in the substrate each have 3 bonds instead of 4, and the 3 C atoms in the bottom layer of the SiC film also have 3 bonds. It is these atoms that have a magnetic moment due to the unpaired $p$-electrons. It was found that for the electron with spin “majority” this interface is an ordinary semiconductor, and for the electron with spin “minority” it is a two-dimensional ferromagnetic metal.

Keywords: silicon carbide, ferromagnetic semi-metals, terahertz radiation, density functional theory, spintronics.

Received: 13.07.2022
Revised: 13.07.2022
Accepted: 05.09.2022

DOI: 10.21883/PJTF.2022.20.53696.19310

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