Title :
Effect of Annealing and Barrier Thickness on MgO-Based Co/Pt and Co/Pd Multilayered Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Author :
Ye, Li-Xiu ; Lee, Ching-Ming ; Syu, Jhin-Wei ; Wang, Yi-Rung ; Lin, Kun-Wei ; Chang, Yu-Hsiu ; Wu, Te-Ho
Author_Institution :
Taiwan SPIN Res. Center, Nat. Yunlin Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Touliu
Abstract :
In this study, the effects of annealing conditions on the magnetic characteristics of multilayered perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJ) of the structures SiNx/Pt/(Co/Pd) 10/MgO/(Co/Pt) 5/Pt with various MgO barrier thicknesses were explored. We found that both the fixed and free layers exhibit coercivity growth with increasing annealing temperature. Insertion of a 0.4 nm Mg layer under the MgO barrier layer increases the corecivities further. Magnetoresistance measured by the current-in-plane tunneling (CIPT) method reveals that the insertion of Mg layers on both side of the MgO layer can increase the MR ratio by up to 32%.
Keywords :
annealing; cobalt; coercive force; magnesium compounds; magnetic multilayers; magnetic tunnelling; magnetoresistance; palladium; platinum; silicon compounds; SiNx-Pt-(Co-Pd)10-MgO-(Co-Pt)5-Pt; annealing; barrier layer; coercivity growth; current-in-plane tunneling method; magnetoresistance; multilayered perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions; Co/Pd; Co/Pt; MgO; perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ); tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR);
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMAG.2008.2001648
