Spin Filtering with Insulating Altermagnets

Altermagnetic (AM) materials have recently attracted significant interest due to their nonrelativistic momentum-dependent spin splitting of their electronic band structure which may be useful for antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics. So far, however, most research studies have been focused on conducting properties of AM metals and semiconductors, while functional properties of AM insulators have remained largely unexplored. Here, we propose employing AM insulators (AMIs) as efficient spin-filter materials. By analyzing the complex band structure of rutile-type altermagnets MF2 (M = Fe, Co, Ni), we demonstrate that the evanescent states in these AMIs exhibit spin- and momentum-dependent decay rates resulting in momentum-dependent spin polarization of the tunneling current. Using a model of spin-filter tunneling across a spin-dependent potential barrier, we estimate the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect in spin-filter magnetic tunnel junctions (SF-MTJs) that include two magnetically decoupled MF2 (001) barrier layers. We predict a sizable spin-filter TMR ratio of about 150–170% in SF-MTJs based on the AMIs CoF2 and NiF2 if the Fermi energy is tuned to be close to the valence band maximum. Our results demonstrate that AMIs provide a viable alternative to conventional spin-filter materials, potentially advancing the development of next-generation AFM spintronic devices.