Room-temperature tunnel magnetoresistance across biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritin

Senthil Kumar Karuppannan; Rupali Reddy Pasula; Tun Seng Herng; Jun Ding; Xiao Chi; Enrique Del Barco; Stephan Roche; Xiaojiang Yu; Nikolai Yakovlev; Sierin Lim; Christian A. Nijhuis

doi:10.1088/2515-7639/abfa79

Room-temperature tunnel magnetoresistance across biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritin

Senthil Kumar Karuppannan, Rupali Reddy Pasula, Tun Seng Herng, Jun Ding, Xiao Chi, Enrique Del Barco, Stephan Roche, Xiaojiang Yu, Nikolai Yakovlev, Sierin Lim^*, Christian A. Nijhuis^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report exceptionally large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) for biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritins immobilized between Ni and EGaIn electrodes. Ferritin stores iron in the form of ferrihydrite nanoparticles (NPs) and fulfills the following roles: (a) it dictates the tunnel barrier, (b) it magnetically decouples the NPs from the ferromagnetic (FM) electrode, (c) it stabilizes the NPs, and (d) it acts as a spin filter reducing the complexity of the tunnel junctions since only one FM electrode is required. The mechanism of charge transport is long-range tunneling which results in TMR of 60 ± 10% at 200 K and 25 ± 5% at room temperature. We propose a magnon-assisted transmission to explain the substantially larger TMR switching fields (up to 1 Tesla) than the characteristic coercive fields (a few Gauss) of ferritin ferrihydrite particles at T < 20 K. These results highlight the genuine potential of biomolecular tunnel junctions in designing functional nanoscale spintronic devices.

Original language	English
Article number	035003
Journal	JPhys Materials
Volume	4
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7639/abfa79
Publication status	Published - Jul 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
General Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics

Keywords

Biomolecular tunnel junction
EGaIn
Ferritin
Ferromagnetic/molecule interface
Magnons
Tunneling magnetoresistance

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10.1088/2515-7639/abfa79

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title = "Room-temperature tunnel magnetoresistance across biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritin",

abstract = "We report exceptionally large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) for biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritins immobilized between Ni and EGaIn electrodes. Ferritin stores iron in the form of ferrihydrite nanoparticles (NPs) and fulfills the following roles: (a) it dictates the tunnel barrier, (b) it magnetically decouples the NPs from the ferromagnetic (FM) electrode, (c) it stabilizes the NPs, and (d) it acts as a spin filter reducing the complexity of the tunnel junctions since only one FM electrode is required. The mechanism of charge transport is long-range tunneling which results in TMR of 60 ± 10% at 200 K and 25 ± 5% at room temperature. We propose a magnon-assisted transmission to explain the substantially larger TMR switching fields (up to 1 Tesla) than the characteristic coercive fields (a few Gauss) of ferritin ferrihydrite particles at T < 20 K. These results highlight the genuine potential of biomolecular tunnel junctions in designing functional nanoscale spintronic devices.",

keywords = "Biomolecular tunnel junction, EGaIn, Ferritin, Ferromagnetic/molecule interface, Magnons, Tunneling magnetoresistance",

author = "Karuppannan, {Senthil Kumar} and Pasula, {Rupali Reddy} and Herng, {Tun Seng} and Jun Ding and Xiao Chi and Barco, {Enrique Del} and Stephan Roche and Xiaojiang Yu and Nikolai Yakovlev and Sierin Lim and Nijhuis, {Christian A.}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.",

year = "2021",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1088/2515-7639/abfa79",

language = "English",

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AU - Karuppannan, Senthil Kumar

AU - Pasula, Rupali Reddy

AU - Herng, Tun Seng

AU - Ding, Jun

AU - Chi, Xiao

AU - Barco, Enrique Del

AU - Roche, Stephan

AU - Yu, Xiaojiang

AU - Yakovlev, Nikolai

AU - Lim, Sierin

AU - Nijhuis, Christian A.

PY - 2021/7

Y1 - 2021/7

N2 - We report exceptionally large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) for biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritins immobilized between Ni and EGaIn electrodes. Ferritin stores iron in the form of ferrihydrite nanoparticles (NPs) and fulfills the following roles: (a) it dictates the tunnel barrier, (b) it magnetically decouples the NPs from the ferromagnetic (FM) electrode, (c) it stabilizes the NPs, and (d) it acts as a spin filter reducing the complexity of the tunnel junctions since only one FM electrode is required. The mechanism of charge transport is long-range tunneling which results in TMR of 60 ± 10% at 200 K and 25 ± 5% at room temperature. We propose a magnon-assisted transmission to explain the substantially larger TMR switching fields (up to 1 Tesla) than the characteristic coercive fields (a few Gauss) of ferritin ferrihydrite particles at T < 20 K. These results highlight the genuine potential of biomolecular tunnel junctions in designing functional nanoscale spintronic devices.

AB - We report exceptionally large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) for biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritins immobilized between Ni and EGaIn electrodes. Ferritin stores iron in the form of ferrihydrite nanoparticles (NPs) and fulfills the following roles: (a) it dictates the tunnel barrier, (b) it magnetically decouples the NPs from the ferromagnetic (FM) electrode, (c) it stabilizes the NPs, and (d) it acts as a spin filter reducing the complexity of the tunnel junctions since only one FM electrode is required. The mechanism of charge transport is long-range tunneling which results in TMR of 60 ± 10% at 200 K and 25 ± 5% at room temperature. We propose a magnon-assisted transmission to explain the substantially larger TMR switching fields (up to 1 Tesla) than the characteristic coercive fields (a few Gauss) of ferritin ferrihydrite particles at T < 20 K. These results highlight the genuine potential of biomolecular tunnel junctions in designing functional nanoscale spintronic devices.

KW - Biomolecular tunnel junction

KW - EGaIn

KW - Ferritin

KW - Ferromagnetic/molecule interface

KW - Magnons

KW - Tunneling magnetoresistance

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Room-temperature tunnel magnetoresistance across biomolecular tunnel junctions based on ferritin

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Keywords

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