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Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal
Due to its negligible spontaneous magnetization, high spin polarization and giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, Mn(2)Ru(x)Ga (MRG) is an ideal candidate as an oscillating layer in THz spin-transfer-torque nano-oscillators. Here, the effect of ultrathin Al and Ta diffusion barriers between MRG a...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6411992/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30858481 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40609-3 |
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author | Titova, Aleksandra Fowley, Ciarán Clifford, Eugene Lau, Yong-Chang Borisov, Kiril Betto, Davide Atcheson, Gwenael Hübner, René Xu, Chi Stamenov, Plamen Coey, Michael Rode, Karsten Lindner, Jürgen Fassbender, Jürgen Deac, Alina Maria |
author_facet | Titova, Aleksandra Fowley, Ciarán Clifford, Eugene Lau, Yong-Chang Borisov, Kiril Betto, Davide Atcheson, Gwenael Hübner, René Xu, Chi Stamenov, Plamen Coey, Michael Rode, Karsten Lindner, Jürgen Fassbender, Jürgen Deac, Alina Maria |
author_sort | Titova, Aleksandra |
collection | PubMed |
description | Due to its negligible spontaneous magnetization, high spin polarization and giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, Mn(2)Ru(x)Ga (MRG) is an ideal candidate as an oscillating layer in THz spin-transfer-torque nano-oscillators. Here, the effect of ultrathin Al and Ta diffusion barriers between MRG and MgO in perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions is investigated and compared to devices with a bare MRG/MgO interface. Both the compensation temperature, T(comp), of the electrode and the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of the device are highly sensitive to the choice and thickness of the insertion layer used. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, as well as analysis of the TMR, its bias dependence, and the resistance-area product allow us to compare the devices from a structural and electrical point of view. Al insertion leads to the formation of thicker effective barriers and gives the highest TMR, at the cost of a reduced T(comp). Ta is the superior diffusion barrier which retains T(comp), however, it also leads to a much lower TMR on account of the short spin diffusion length which reduces the tunneling spin polarization. The study shows that fine engineering of the Mn(2)Ru(x)Ga/barrier interface to improve the TMR amplitude is feasible. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6411992 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64119922019-03-13 Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal Titova, Aleksandra Fowley, Ciarán Clifford, Eugene Lau, Yong-Chang Borisov, Kiril Betto, Davide Atcheson, Gwenael Hübner, René Xu, Chi Stamenov, Plamen Coey, Michael Rode, Karsten Lindner, Jürgen Fassbender, Jürgen Deac, Alina Maria Sci Rep Article Due to its negligible spontaneous magnetization, high spin polarization and giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, Mn(2)Ru(x)Ga (MRG) is an ideal candidate as an oscillating layer in THz spin-transfer-torque nano-oscillators. Here, the effect of ultrathin Al and Ta diffusion barriers between MRG and MgO in perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions is investigated and compared to devices with a bare MRG/MgO interface. Both the compensation temperature, T(comp), of the electrode and the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of the device are highly sensitive to the choice and thickness of the insertion layer used. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, as well as analysis of the TMR, its bias dependence, and the resistance-area product allow us to compare the devices from a structural and electrical point of view. Al insertion leads to the formation of thicker effective barriers and gives the highest TMR, at the cost of a reduced T(comp). Ta is the superior diffusion barrier which retains T(comp), however, it also leads to a much lower TMR on account of the short spin diffusion length which reduces the tunneling spin polarization. The study shows that fine engineering of the Mn(2)Ru(x)Ga/barrier interface to improve the TMR amplitude is feasible. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6411992/ /pubmed/30858481 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40609-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Titova, Aleksandra Fowley, Ciarán Clifford, Eugene Lau, Yong-Chang Borisov, Kiril Betto, Davide Atcheson, Gwenael Hübner, René Xu, Chi Stamenov, Plamen Coey, Michael Rode, Karsten Lindner, Jürgen Fassbender, Jürgen Deac, Alina Maria Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
title | Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
title_full | Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
title_fullStr | Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
title_full_unstemmed | Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
title_short | Effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
title_sort | effect of insertion layer on electrode properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metal |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6411992/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30858481 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40609-3 |
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