halfmetallicity
Half-metallicity is a property of certain materials in which electrons of one spin orientation behave as conducting, metallic electrons while electrons of the opposite spin experience a band gap and act as insulators or semiconductors at the Fermi level. In the ideal case this leads to 100 percent spin polarization of the conduction electrons, a feature that makes these materials attractive for spintronics.
In a half-metal, the electronic structure is spin-dependent: one spin channel has a metallic density of states
Materials commonly studied for half-metallicity include Heusler alloys, such as NiMnSb and Co2MnSi, which have been
Applications of half-metals are largely in spintronics, where highly spin-polarized currents can enhance the performance of
The concept was introduced in the 1980s by de Groot and colleagues, who predicted half-metallic ferromagnetism