On the way to an all-nitride epitaxial magnetic tunnel junction

Summary form only given. The magnetoresistance of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) is of great interest, especially for the fabrication of non-volatile magnetic random access memories. Till now, almost exclusively, the MTJ consisted of metal electrodes and an amorphous alumina barrier. Despite large and reproducible tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), these systems am too complex for a detailed theoretical approach. Most calculations of spin dependent tunneling and TMR were developed for epitaxial MTJ, for a rather restricted choice of materials. For fully epitaxial Fe/(MgO 20 /spl Aring/)/Fe systems, a TMR as high as 2000 % was calculated. Up to now, experimental data on epitaxially grown Fe/(MgO 20 /spl Aring/)/FeCo systems, showed TMR values of only 60%. The development of novel epitaxial systems is of high importance for a broader view on MTJ. In this respect, Fe and Cu nitrides open new and exciting perspectives. Based on good magnetic properties, the Fe nitrides /spl alpha/"-Fe/sub 16/N/sub 2/ and /spl gamma/-Fe/sub 4/N are possible candidates.