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Novel stack structure of magnetic tunnel junction with MgO tunnel barrier prepared by oxidation methods: Preferred grain growth promotion seed layers and bi-layered pinned layer

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, ISSN: 0021-4922, Vol: 48, Issue: 12
2009
  • 24
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 30
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
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Metrics Details

  • Citations
    24
    • Citation Indexes
      23
    • Patent Family Citations
      1
      • Patent Families
        1
  • Captures
    30

Article Description

Despite superior compatibility to mass-production, magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with MgO barrier prepared by oxidation process (MgO) has shown unacceptable magnetotransport properties for proper operation of spintronics devices because poor crystalline MgO cannot properly provide a template for crystallization of amorphous CoFeB layers, thus lack of pseudo-epitaxy in overall. We report novel stack structure for MgO -based MTJ to assure acceptable magnetotransport properties: insertion of preferred-grain-growth-promotion (PGGP) seed layer and bi-layered ferromagnetic pinned layer (bi-PL) to induce preferred grain growth in MgO and crystallization of CoFeB layers at higher temperature annealing. Microstructure analysis confirms highly crystalline MgO in pseudo-epitaxy with fully crystallized CoFeB via PGGP by high temperature annealing, attributed to enhanced thermal stability of bi-PL. Tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) 132.6% at resistance-area product (RA) 1.2Ωμm and 253% at 5.9Ωμmm from novel MTJ stack successfully satisfy specifications for spintronics devices. © 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics.

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