DocumentCode :
858549
Title :
Transmission Electron Microscopy Study of the Fe(001) 
MgO(001) Interface for Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Author :
Wang, Chao ; Wang, Shouguo ; Kohn, Amit ; Ward, Roger C C ; Petford-Long, Amanda K.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mater., Oxford Univ.
Volume :
43
Issue :
6
fYear :
2007
fDate :
6/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
Firstpage :
2779
Lastpage :
2781
Abstract :
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is employed to characterize ex situ the interface between the bottom Fe (001) electrode and MgO (001) barrier in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. High resolution TEM images are compared with multislice-based simulations of oxidized and sharp interfaces to conclude that at least the part of the interface is not oxidized. In addition, the spacing between the Fe and O layers at the interface is measured and found to be comparable with theoretical calculations in the literature of sharp interfaces. This result offers a methodology to characterize the interface structure of MTJs, which is important to determine the magneto-transport properties of the device
Keywords :
ferromagnetic materials; galvanomagnetic effects; interface magnetism; interface structure; iron; magnesium compounds; magnetic tunnelling; molecular beam epitaxial growth; transmission electron microscopy; Fe-MgO; high resolution TEM; interface structure; magnetic tunnel junctions; magneto-transport properties; molecular beam epitaxy; Electrodes; Electron beams; Image resolution; Iron; Magnetic devices; Magnetic force microscopy; Magnetic properties; Magnetic tunneling; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Transmission electron microscopy; Electron microscopy; epitaxial growth; interface phenomena; oxidation; tunnel junction;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0018-9464
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TMAG.2007.893694
Filename :
4202692
Link To Document :
