Tunneling conductance studies in the ion-beam sputtered CoFe/Mg/MgO/NiFe magnetic tunnel junctions

Journal Article · Mon Jun 03 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4810609· OSTI ID:22118526

Singh, Braj Bhusan; Chaudhary, Sujeet ^[1]

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1. Thin Film Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016 (India)

Magnetic tunnel junctions consisting of CoFe(10 nm)/Mg(1 nm)/MgO(3.5 nm)/NiFe(10 nm) are grown at room temperature using dual ion beam sputtering via in-situ shadow masking. The effective barrier thickness and average barrier height are estimated to be 3.5 nm (2.9 nm) and 0.69 eV (1.09 eV) at 290 K (70 K), respectively. The tunnel magnetoresistance value of 0.2 % and 2.3 % was observed at 290 K and 60 K, respectively. The temperature dependence of tunneling conductance revealed the presence of localized states present within the forbidden gap of the MgO barrier leading to finite inelastic spin independent tunneling contributions, which degrade the TMR value.

• OSTI ID: 22118526
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1536, Issue 1; Conference: RAM 2013: International conference on recent trends in applied physics and material science, Bikaner, Rajasthan (India), 1-2 Feb 2013; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COBALT ALLOYS
ENERGY GAP
EV RANGE
ION BEAMS
IRON ALLOYS
LAYERS
MAGNESIUM
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
MAGNETORESISTANCE
MASKING
NICKEL ALLOYS
SPUTTERING
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TUNNEL EFFECT