Low-resistance magnetic tunnel junctions prepared by partial remote plasma oxidation of 0.9 nm Al barriers
- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores-Microsystems and Nanotecnologies (INESC-MN), R. Alves Redol 9-1, 1000-029 Lisbon (Portugal)
Current perpendicular to the plane read-head elements suitable for high-density magnetic storage require low resistance while maintaining a reasonable magnetoresistive (MR) signal (RxA<1 {omega} {mu}m{sup 2} and MR>20% for areal densities >200 Gb/in{sup 2}). This letter shows that competitive low RxA junctions can be produced using underoxidized barriers starting from 0.9 nm thick Al layers. For as-deposited junctions, tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) {approx}20% for RxA{approx}2-15 {omega} {mu}m{sup 2} is obtained, while in the RxA{approx}60-150 {omega} {mu}m{sup 2} range, TMR values between 40% to 45% are achieved. A limited number of junctions exhibits considerably lower RxA values with respect to the average, while keeping a similar MR (down to 0.44 {omega} {mu}m{sup 2} with TMR of 20% and down to 2.2 {omega} {mu}m{sup 2} with TMR of 52%). Experimental data suggest that current confinement to small regions (barrier defects/hot spots) may explain these results.
- OSTI ID:
- 20702339
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 86, Issue 19; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1925318; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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