Effect of Adjacent Layers on Crystallization and Magnetoresistance in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB Magnetic Tunnel Junction

Author

Park, Chando ; Wang, Yung-Hung ; Laughlin, David E. ; Zhu, Jian-Gang

Author_Institution

Data Storage Syst. Center, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA

Volume

42

Issue

10

fYear

2006

Firstpage

2639

Lastpage

2641

Abstract

Crystallization must occur in order to obtain lattice matching between CoFeB and MgO in amorphous CoFeB/MgO/amorphous CoFeB magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). However, the interface layer effect on the crystallization behavior is not yet clear. An aim of our experiments was to investigate the effects of various layers including Ta, MgO, Ru, and NiFe on the crystallization and transport properties in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB MTJs deposited on SiO₂/Si and glass. It was found that the onset of crystallization of CoFeB and its specific orientation were dependent on the layer adjacent to CoFeB. The effects of crystallization on transport properties are also discussed

Keywords

cobalt compounds; crystallisation; iron compounds; magnesium compounds; nickel compounds; ruthenium; silicon compounds; tantalum; transport processes; tunnelling magnetoresistance; CoFeB-MgO-CoFeB; NiFe; Ru; SiO₂-Si; Ta; adjacent layers; crystallization; interface layer effect; magnetic tunnel junction; magnetoresistance; transport property; Amorphous magnetic materials; Amorphous materials; Annealing; Crystallization; Electrons; Glass; Iron; Magnetic tunneling; Tunneling magnetoresistance; X-ray scattering; CoFeB; MgO barrier; crystallization;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2006.879739

Filename

1704390