Electrical characteristics and interface structure of magnetic tunnel junctions with hafnium oxyfluoride barrier
- Center for Strongly Correlated Materials Research and School of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742 (Korea, Republic of)
We have studied the effects of fluorine inclusion on the electrical transport characteristics and interface structure of the hafnium oxide barrier in a magnetic tunnel junction. The tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and resistance-area (RA) as a function of oxidation time show that the TMR ratio of the hafnium oxyfluoride barrier is higher (8.3%) than that of the hafnium oxide barrier (5.7%) at their optimum conditions, and the oxyfluoride barrier junctions maintain a high TMR ratio even when the RA product increases by three orders of magnitude. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows that the fluorine atoms in the oxyfluoride barrier play an important role in the formation of a barrier with uniform composition. We believe that the initial fluoride layer is causing the subsequent oxygen diffusion to slow down, resulting in the formation of a defect-free hafnium oxide layer. These results are consistent with what we have found for aluminum oxyfluoride barriers.
- OSTI ID:
- 20658096
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 96, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1813638; (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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