Role of Mg interlayers in Fe/Mg/MgO/Fe and Fe/Mg/MgO/Mg/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.054405· OSTI ID:985770

Wang, Y. ^[1]; Zhang, J. ^[1]; Zhang, Xiaoguang ^[2]; Cheng, Hai-Ping ^[3]; Han, Prof. X. F. ^[1]

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1. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science
2. ORNL
3. University of Florida

-Fe(001)/Mg/MgO/Fe- and -Fe(001)/Mg/MgO/Mg/Fe- magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with Mg interlayers are studied by first-principles calculation. An important role of the Mg interlayer is identified to be preserving the preferential transmission of the majority-spin states with \Delta_1 symmetry, which dominate the spin-dependent electron transport of MTJs with MgO barrier. One layer of Mg at the electrode/barrier interface does not decrease the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio nearly as much as one layer of oxide. At certain Mg thickness case the TMR could be strongly influenced by the resonance tunneling states in minority-spin channel, these states are mainly raised from the quantum-well states formed in the Mg interlayer and coupled with interfacial resonance states which are very sensitive to the interface structures.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 985770
• Journal Information: Physical Review B, Vol. 82, Issue 5; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
IRON
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
MAGNESIUM
MAGNETORESISTANCE
THICKNESS
ELECTRON TRANSFER
INTERFACES