Effect of capping layer material on tunnel magnetoresistance in CoFeB-MgO-CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions

Author

Tsumekawa, K. ; Djayaprawira, D.D. ; Nagai, M. ; Maehara, H. ; Yamagata, S. ; Watanabe, N.

Author_Institution

ANELVA Corp., Tokyo, Japan

fYear

2005

fDate

4-8 April 2005

Firstpage

1983

Lastpage

1984

Abstract

The effect of capping layer (CL) material on tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and magnetic properties in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions has been studied. The use of CL materials such as Ta, Ru, PtMn, Mg and IrMn yielded high MR ratio of more than 100%. The use of ferromagnetic materials, on the other hand, such as NiFe, CoFe or Fe decreased the MR ratio, as well as using Al, Cu, NiFeCr or Ir. The dependence of coercivity on CL materials for the same samples are also studied. It was speculated from the results that the degradation of the TMR and the magnetic properties when particular capping layer materials were used, is due to the formation of a reactive layer between the free layer and the capping layer.

Keywords

aluminium; boron alloys; chromium alloys; cobalt alloys; coercive force; copper; ferromagnetic materials; iridium; iridium alloys; iron; iron alloys; magnesium; magnesium compounds; manganese alloys; nickel alloys; platinum alloys; ruthenium; tantalum; tunnelling magnetoresistance; Al; CoFe; CoFeB-MgO-CoFeB; Cu; Fe; Ir; IrMn; Mg; NiFe; NiFeCr; PtMn; Ru; TMR; Ta; capping layer material; coercivity; ferromagnetic materials; free layer; magnetic tunnel junctions; reactive layer; tunnel magnetoresistance; Antiferromagnetic materials; Artificial intelligence; Degradation; Iron; Lamination; Magnetic materials; Magnetic properties; Magnetic tunneling; Soft magnetic materials; Tunneling magnetoresistance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Magnetics Conference, 2005. INTERMAG Asia 2005. Digests of the IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9009-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INTMAG.2005.1464430

Filename

1464430