Reduction of surface roughness and Neel coupling in perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with L1{sub 0}-FePt electrodes by plasma treatments

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3561141· OSTI ID:21560129

Tsai, Wu-Chang; Lee, Jian-Wei; Chen, Chia-Hsiang; Lai, Chih-Huang ^[1]; Yen, Cheng-Tyng; Wang, Yung-Hung ^[2]

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1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, 30013, Taiwan (China)
2. Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Lab., Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, 31040, Taiwan (China)

The plasma treatment with O{sub 2}/Ar mixture was applied to reduce the surface roughness of the L1{sub 0}-FePt electrode in perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions. The surface roughness (R{sub rms}) of the L1{sub 0}-FePt layer was decreased from 1.2 nm at the as-deposited state to 0.52 nm after the plasma treatment with the ratio of O{sub 2} to Ar equal to 0.5. The low surface roughness accompanying the formation of an oxide layer led to magnetic decoupling between free and reference layers after the plasma treatment on the surface of FePt layer. The existence of the oxide layer was confirmed by using transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The interfacial Pt-oxide layer plays a significant role in the magnetic decoupling.

• OSTI ID: 21560129
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 7; Conference: 55. annual conference on magnetism and magnetic materials, Atlanta, GA (United States), 14-18 Nov 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3561141; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COUPLING
DECOUPLING
ELECTRODES
IRON ALLOYS
LAYERS
MIXTURES
NEEL TEMPERATURE
OXIDES
PLASMA
PLATINUM ALLOYS
ROUGHNESS
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS
SURFACES
THIN FILMS
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
TUNNEL EFFECT
X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
ALLOYS
CHALCOGENIDES
DISPERSIONS
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
FILMS
MICROSCOPY
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLATINUM METAL ALLOYS
SPECTROSCOPY
SURFACE PROPERTIES
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENT ALLOYS
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE