Study on Exchange-Biased Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junction Based on Pd/Co Multilayers

Author

Lim, Dongwon ; Kim, Kisu ; Kim, Sungdong ; Jeung, Won Young ; Lee, Seong-Rae

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Eng., Korea Univ., Seoul

Volume

45

Issue

6

fYear

2009

fDate

6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2407

Lastpage

2409

Abstract

We investigated top and bottom exchange biased perpendicularly magnetized magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs) with IrMn and the effects of the multilayer structure on the magnetoresistance and perpendicular exchange bias. The TMR ratio of the top exchange biased (TEB)-pMTJ was significantly deteriorated compared with that of the pseudo-pMTJ, due to the high junction resistance and the in-plane anisotropy induced in the Co/IrMn interface. The TMR ratio and perpendicular exchange bias were improved in the bottom exchange biased (BEB)-pMTJ as compared with those of the TEB-pMTJ. Perpendicularly magnetized buffer layers, such as (Pd/Co)_n, should be used to induce perpendicular exchange coupling with antiferromagnets such as IrMn in BEB-pMTJs.

Keywords

antiferromagnetic materials; buffer layers; cobalt; exchange interactions (electron); iridium alloys; magnetic multilayers; manganese alloys; palladium; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; tunnelling magnetoresistance; antiferromagnets; exchange-biased perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction; in-plane anisotropy; multilayers; perpendicular exchange coupling; perpendicularly magnetized buffer layers; tunnelling magnetoresistance; Exchange biased; Pd/Co; perpendicular MTJ;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2009.2018590

Filename

4957779