Room temperature operation of a high output current magnetic tunnel transistor

The structure and properties of a magnetic tunnel transistor with high current output at room temperature are presented. The transistor marries a two-terminal magnetic tunnel junction with an Al2O3 tunnel barrier and a GaAs collector. The output current depends on the spin-dependent transport of hot electrons in the base layer of the transistor, which is formed from a single ultrathin ferromagnetic film. At a bias voltage of 1.4 V across the tunnel barrier, output currents larger than 1 μA and magnetocurrent changes of 64% are obtained at room temperature. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.