Vertical Electron Transport through PbS-EuS Structures

Temperature dependence of current-voltage I-V characteristics and resistivity is studied in ferromagnetic PbS-EuS semiconductor tunnel structures grown on n-PbS (100) substrates. For the structures with a single (2-4 nm thick) ferromagnetic EuS electron barrier we observe strongly non-linear I-V characteristics with an effective tunneling barrier height of 0.3-0.7 eV. The experimentally observed non-monotonic temperature dependence of the (normal to the plane of the structure) electrical resistance of these structures is discussed in terms of the electron tunneling mechanism taking into account the temperature dependent shift of the band offsets at the EuS-PbS heterointerface as well as the exchange splitting of the electronic states at the bottom of the conduction band of EuS.