Diode and inhomogeneity assisted extremely large magnetoresistance in silicon

Abstract

The combined effect of metal inhomogeneity and diode assisted geometry changes on magnetoresistance (MR) of silicon has been studied at a low magnetic field by both finite element modeling (FEM) and experiments. The diode rectifying characteristic is utilized with rectangular shaped metal inhomogeneity to enhance the MR value. It is found that the MR value increases with the increase in the filling factor and reaches a maximum of 72% at 50 mT for a filling factor of 0.416. The FEM studies show that a large differential resistance ratio and critical current shift are the main factor for such a high MR value, which is in good agreement with our experimental results. This study could open another way to design MR devices that can show large MR and good magnetic field sensitivity.