Structure optimization and thermal annealing effect of IrMn-based bottom spin valves

Author

Ouyang, Ke-Qing ; Fan, Zent-Xu ; Ren, Tian-Liang ; Liu, Li-Tian ; Liu, Hua-Rui ; Qu, Bing-Jun ; Li, Wei

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China

Volume

1

fYear

2004

fDate

18-21 Oct. 2004

Firstpage

773

Abstract

IrMn-based bottom spin valves fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering method were investigated. An optimized thickness (20Å) of buffer layer was proposed for the bottom pinned structure: Ta(41Å)/buffer layer/IrMn(82Å)/CoFe(28Å)/Cu(19Å)/CoFe(10Å)/NiFe( 45Å)/Ta(38Å); where buffer layer could be NiFe or Cu. With the optimized structure, high MR ratio (>8.5%) low coercivity (<0.8Oe); and high exchange bias field (>800Oe) were obtained. The thermal annealing effect on the GMR properties in bottom pinned structure was also studied. These simple bottom spin valves could be the promising robust giant magnetoresistance sensors for the automotive and industrial applications.

Keywords

cobalt alloys; copper; interface magnetism; magnetic annealing; nickel alloys; rapid thermal annealing; spin valves; sputter deposition; tantalum; 20 Å; DC magnetron sputtering; GMR properties; Ta-Cu-IrMn-CoFe-Cu-CoFe-NiFe-Ta; Ta-NiFe-IrMn-CoFe-Cu-CoFe-NiFe-Ta; automotive application; bottom spin valves; buffer layer; giant magnetoresistance sensors; industrial application; structure optimization; thermal annealing effect; Annealing; Buffer layers; Coercive force; Glass; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic sensors; Robustness; Spin valves; Sputtering; Vacuum systems;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State and Integrated Circuits Technology, 2004. Proceedings. 7th International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8511-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICSICT.2004.1435117

Filename

1435117