An antiferromagnet offers many important functionalities such as opportunities for electrical control of magnetic domains, immunity from magnetic perturbations, and fast spin dynamics. Introducing some of these intriguing features of an antiferromagnet into a low dimensional semiconductor core-shell nanowire offers an exciting pathway for its usage in antiferromagnetic semiconductor spintronics. Here, using a quantum mechanical approach, we predict that the Cr-doped Ge-core/Si-shell nanowire behaves as an antiferromagnetic semiconductor. The origin of antiferromagnetic spin alignments between Cr is attributed to the superexchange interaction mediated by the pz orbitals of the Ge atoms that are bonded to Cr. A weak spin-orbit interaction was found in this material, suggesting a longer spin coherence length. The spin-dependent quantum transport calculations in the Cr-doped nanowire junction reveals a switching feature with a high ON/OFF current ratio (∼41 times higher for the ON state at a relatively small bias of 0.83 V).
Keywords: antiferromagnetism; electronic structure; quantum transport; semiconductor core−shell nanowire; spin−orbit coupling; superexchange.