Exchange bias and bistable magneto-resistance states in amorphous TbFeCo thin films

Li, Xiaopu; Ma, Chung T.; Lu, Jiwei; Devaraj, Arun; Spurgeon, Steven R.; Comes, Ryan B.; Poon, S. Joseph

doi:10.1063/1.4939240

Title: Exchange bias and bistable magneto-resistance states in amorphous TbFeCo thin films

Journal Article · Mon Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4939240· OSTI ID:1454741

Li, Xiaopu ^[1]; Ma, Chung T. ^[1]; Lu, Jiwei ^[2]; Devaraj, Arun ^[3];

^[4];

^[1]

Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States). Dept. of of Materials Science and Engineering
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate

Amorphous TbFeCo thin films sputter deposited at room temperature on thermally oxidized Si substrate are found to exhibit strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Atom probe tomography, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping have revealed two nanoscale amorphous phases with different Tb atomic percentages distributed within the amorphous film. Exchange bias accompanied by bistable magneto-resistance states has been uncovered near room temperature by magnetization and magneto-transport measurements. The exchange anisotropy originates from the exchange interaction between the ferrimagnetic and ferromagnetic components corresponding to the two amorphous phases. Here, this study provides a platform for exchange bias and magneto-resistance switching using single-layer amorphous ferrimagnetic thin films that require no epitaxial growth.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Grant/Contract Number:: HDTRA 1-11-1-0024; AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1454741

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1234173

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-113796; APPLAB

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 1; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 20 works

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Thickness dependence of ferrimagnetic compensation in amorphous rare-earth transition-metal thin films Ma, Chung Ting; Kirby, Brian J.; Li, Xiaopu Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050626	journal	October 2018
Giant exchange bias effect in all-3 d -metal Ni _38.8 Co _2.9 Mn _37.9 Ti _20.4 thin film Liu, K.; Ma, S. C.; Zhang, Z. S. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129878	journal	January 2020
Three-dimensional nanoscale characterisation of materials by atom probe tomography Devaraj, Arun; Perea, Daniel E.; Liu, Jia International Materials Reviews, Vol. 63, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/09506608.2016.1270728	journal	November 2016
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