Tuning the magnetoresistance properties of phosphorene with periodic magnetic modulation.

Periodic superlattices constitute ideal structures to modulate the transport properties of two-dimensional materials. In this paper, we show that the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in phosphorene can be tuned effectively through periodic magnetic modulation. Deltaic magnetic barriers are arranged periodically along the phosphorene armchair direction in parallel (PM) and anti-parallel magnetization (AM) fashion. The theoretical treatment is based on a low-energy effective Hamiltonian, the transfer matrix method and the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. We find that the periodic modulation gives rise to oscillating transport characteristics for both PM and AM configurations. More importantly, by adjusting the electrostatic potential appropriately we find Fermi energy regions for which the AM conductance is reduced significantly while the PM conductance keeps considerable values, resulting in an effective TMR that increases with the magnetic field strength. These findings could be useful in the design of magnetoresistive devices based on magnetic phosphorene superlattices.