Alloying Fe electrodes with V, through reduced FeV/MgO interface mismatch in epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions with MgO barriers, notably suppresses both nonmagnetic (parallel) and magnetic (antiparallel) state 1/f noise and enhances tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR). A comparative study of the room temperature electron transport and low frequency noise in Fe1-xVx/MgO/Fe and Fe/MgO/Fe1-xVx MTJs with 0 <= x <= 0.25 reveals that V doping of the bottom electrode for x < 0.1 reduces in nearly 2 orders of magnitude the normalized nonmagnetic and magnetic 1/f noise. We attribute the enhanced TMR and suppressed 1/f noise to strongly reduced misfit and dislocation density.
Room temperature local magnetoresistance in two-terminal scheme is reported. By employing 1.6 nm-thick MgO tunnel barrier, spin injection efficiency is increased, resulting in large non-local magnetoresistance. The magnitude of the non-local magnetoresistance is estimated to be 0.0057 ohm at room temperature. As a result, a clear rectangle signal is observed in local magnetoresistance measurement even at room temperature. We also investigate the origin of local magnetoresistance by measuring the spin accumulation voltage of each contact separately.
We examine the spin torque (ST) response of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with ultra-thin MgO tunnel barrier layers to investigate the relationship between the spin-transfer torque and the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) under finite bias. We find that the spin torque per unit current exerted on the free layer decreases by less than 10% over a bias range where the TMR decreases by over 40%. We examine the implications of this result for various spin-polarized tunneling models and find that it is consistent with magnetic-state-dependent effective tunnel decay lengths.
The influence of insertion of an ultra-thin NiO layer between the MgO barrier and ferromagnetic electrode in magnetic tunnel junctions has been investigated by measuring the tunneling magnetoresistance and the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The magnetoresistance shows a high asymmetry with respect to bias voltage, giving rise to a negative value of -16% at 2.8 K. We attribute this to the formation of non-collinear spin structures in the NiO layer as observed by XMCD. The magnetic moments of the interface Ni atoms tilt from the easy axis due to exchange interaction and the tilting an…
Recently, it has been shown that magnetic tunnel junctions with thin MgO tunnel barriers exhibit extraordinarily high tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) values at room temperature1, 2. However, the physics of spin dependent tunneling through MgO barriers is only beginning to be unravelled. Using planar magnetic tunnel junctions in which ultra-thin layers of magnetic metals are deposited in the middle of a MgO tunnel barrier here we demonstrate that the TMR is strongly modified when these layers are discontinuous and composed of small pancake shaped nanodots. At low temperatures, in the Coulomb …
We created epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions of FeCo/MgO/EuS on MgO buffered Si (100). Tunnel magnetoresistance reached up to 64% at 4.2 K. An unexpected fast drop of magnetoresistance was recorded for MgO thickness above 1 nm, which is attributed to the forced nonspecular conductance across the EuS conduction band minimum located at the X point, rather than the desired Delta_1 conductance centered around the Gamma point.
The spin-orbit interaction in heavy metal/ferromagnet/oxide structures has been extensively investigated because it can be employed in manipulation of the magnetization direction by in-plane current. This implies the existence of an inverse effect, in which the conductivity in such structures should depend on the magnetization orientation. In this work, we report a systematic study of the magnetoresistance (MR) of the W/CoFeB/MgO structures and its correlation to the current-induced torque to the magnetization. We observe that the MR is independent of the angle between magnetization and curren…
The Fe/MgO magnetic tunnel junction is a classic spintronic system, with current importance technologically, and interest for future innovation. The key magnetic properties are linked directly to the structure of hard-to-access buried interfaces, and the Fe and MgO components near the surface are unstable when exposed to air, making a deeper probing, non-destructive, in-situ measurement ideal for this system. We have thus applied hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HXPS) and standing-wave (SW) HXPS in the few keV energy range to probe the structure of an epitaxially-grown MgO/Fe superlattic…
We investigate bias voltage effects on the spin-dependent transport properties of Fe/MgAl${}_2$O${}_4$/Fe(001) magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) by comparing them with those of Fe/MgO/Fe(001) MTJs. By means of the nonequilibrium Green's function method and the density functional theory, we calculate bias voltage dependences of magnetoresistance (MR) ratios in both the MTJs. We find that in both the MTJs, the MR ratio decreases as the bias voltage increases and finally vanishes at a critical bias voltage $V_{\rm c}$. We also find that the critical bias voltage $V_{\rm c}$ of the MgAl${}_2$O${…
While the effects of lattice mismatch-induced strain, mechanical strain, as well as the intrinsic strain of thin films are sometimes detrimental, resulting in mechanical deformation and failure, strain can also be usefully harnessed for applications such as data storage, transistors, solar cells, and strain gauges, among other things. Here, we demonstrate that quantum transport across magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) can be significantly affected by the introduction of controllable mechanical strain, achieving an enhancement factor of ~2 in the experimental tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ra…
We investigated dependence of tunnel magnetoresistance effect in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions on Ar pressure during MgO-barrier sputtering. Sputter deposition of MgO-barrier at high Ar pressure of 10 mTorr resulted in smooth surface and highly (001) oriented MgO. Using this MgO as a tunnel barrier, tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio as high as 355% at room temperature (578% at 5K) was realized after annealing at 325 C or higher, which appears to be related to a highly (001) oriented CoFeB texture promoted by the smooth and highly oriented MgO. Electron-beam lithography defined d…
The exchange bias effect is commonly used to shift the coercive field of a ferromagnet. This technique is crucial for the use of magnetic tunnel junctions as logic or memory devices. Therefore, an independent switching of the two ferromagnetic electrodes is necessary to guarantee a reliable readout. Here, we demonstrate that the intrinsic exchange bias effect of Ni-Mn-Sn can be used to apply a unidirectional anisotropy to magnetic tunnel junctions. For this, we use epitaxial Ni-Mn-Sn films as pinning layers for microfabricated CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions. We compare the exchange …
A magnetic tunnel junction Fe3O4/MgO/Fe with (001) layer orientation is considered. The junction magnetic energy is analyzed as a function of the angle between the layer magnetization vectors under various magnetic fields. The tunnel magnetoresistance is calculated as a function of the external magnetic field. In contrast with junctions with unidirectional anisotropy, a substantially lower magnetic field is required for the junction switching.
The electronic band structure in the epitaxial Fe/MgO/GaAs(001) tunnel junction has been studied by X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The Schottky barrier height (SBH) of Fe on MgO/GaAs heterostructure is determined to be 3.3+-0.1eV, which sets the Fe Fermi level about 0.3eV above the GaAs valence band maximum. This SBH is also exactly the same as that measured from Fe on MgO monocrystal. After Fe deposition, no band bending change is observed in MgO and GaAs underlayers. On the contrary, Au and Al deposition lead to clear variation of the band bending in both MgO …
By use of first-principles electronic structure calculations, we predict that the magnetoresistance of the bcc Co(100)/MgO(100)/bcc Co(100) and FeCo(100)/MgO(100)/FeCo(100) tunneling junctions can be several times larger than the very large magnetoresistance predicted for the Fe(100)/MgO(100)/Fe(100) system. The origin of this large magnetoresistance can be understood using simple physical arguments by considering the electrons at the Fermi energy travelling perpendicular to the interfaces. For the minority spins there is no state with $Δ_1$ symmetry whereas for the majority spins there is onl…
We theoretically study the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect in (111)-oriented junctions Co/MgO/Co(111) and Ni/MgO/Ni(111). The Co-based junction is shown to have a TMR ratio over 2000$\%$, which is one order higher than that of the Ni-based one. The high TMR ratio is attributed to the interfacial resonance effect: The interfacial $d$-$p$ antibonding states are formed close to the Fermi level in the majority-spin channel and these states in both interfaces resonate with each other. This differs essentially from the conventional coherent tunneling mechanism of high TMR ratios in Fe(Co)/MgO/…
The structures of epitaxial ultrathin Co2FeAl/MgO(001) heterostructures relating to the interface-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) were investigated using scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. We found that Al atoms from the Co2FeAl layer significantly interdiffuse into MgO, forming an Al-deficient Co-Fe-Al/Mg-Al-O structure near the Co2FeAl/MgO interface. This atomic replacement may play an additional role for enhancing PMA, which is consistent with the observed large perpendicular orbital magneti…
We investigated the dependence of giant tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) on the thickness of an MgO barrier and on the annealing temperature of sputtered CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions deposited on SiO2/Si wafers. The resistance-area product exponentially increases with MgO thickness, indicating that the quality of MgO barriers is high in the investigated thickness range of 1.15-2.4 nm. High-resolution transmission electron microscope images show that annealing at 375 C results in the formation of crystalline CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB structures, even though CoFeB electrodes are amorphous in th…
The tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect observed in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) is commonly used in many spintronic applications because the effect can easily convert from local magnetic states to electric signals in a wide range of device resistances. In this study, we demonstrated TMR ratios of up to 631% at room temperature (RT), which is two or more times larger than those used currently for magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) devices, using CoFe/MgO/CoFe(001) epitaxial MTJs. The TMR ratio increased up to 1143% at 10 K, which corresponds to an effective tunneling spin polar…
We report tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratios as high as 472% at room temperature and 804% at 5 K in pseudo-spin valve (SV) CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) annealed at 450oC, which is approaching the theoretically predicted value. By contrast, the TMR ratios for exchange-biased (EB) SV MTJs with a MnIr antiferromagnetic layer are found to drop when they are annealed at 450oC. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis shows that annealing at 450oC induces interdiffusion of Mn and Ru atoms into the MgO barrier and ferromagnetic layers in EB-SV MTJs. Mechanisms behind the different anne…
Cryogenic-temperature Grain-to-grain Epitaxial Growth of High-quality Ultrathin CoFe Layer on MgO Tunnel Barrier for High-performance Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Magnetic tunnel junctions with the layer sequence Co$_2$Cr$_{0.6}$Fe$_{0.4}$Al/MgO/CoFe were fabricated by magnetron sputtering at room temperature (RT). The samples exhibit a large inverse tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect of up to -66% at RT. The largest value of -84% at 20 K reflects a rather weak influence of temperature. The dependence on the voltage drop shows an unusual behavior with two almost symmetric peaks at $\pm600$ mV with large inverse TMR ratios and small positive values around zero bias.
Nanoscale Fe3O4 epitaxial thin film has been synthesized on MgO/GaAs(100) spintronic heterostructure, and studied with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). We have observed a total magnetic moment of (3.32 +- 0.1) uB/f.u., retaining 83% of the bulk value. Unquenched orbital moment of (0.47 +- 0.05) uB/f.u. has been confirmed by carefully applying the sum rule. The results offer direct experimental evidence of the bulk-like total magnetic moment and a large orbital moment in the nanoscale fully epitaxial Fe3O4/MgO/GaAs(100) heterostructure, which is significant for spintronics applications…
We report on the structural properties of epitaxial FeO layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on MgO(111). The successful stabilization of polar FeO films as thick as 16 monolayers (ML), obtained by deposition and subsequent oxidation of single Fe layers, is presented. FeO/MgO(111) thin films were chemically and structurally characterized using low-energy electron diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy and conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy (CEMS). Detailed in situ CEMS measurements as a function of the film thickness demonstrated a size-effect-induced evolution of the hyperfine par…
We investigated the relationship between the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio and the electrode structure in MgO-barrier magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). The TMR ratio in a MTJ with Co40Fe40B20 reference and free layers reached 355% at the post-deposition annealing temperature of Ta=400 degree C. When Co50Fe50 or Co90Fe10 is used for the reference layer material, no high TMR ratio was observed. The key to have high TMR ratio is to have highly oriented (001) MgO barrier/CoFeB crystalline electrodes. The highest TMR ratio obtained so far is 450% at Ta = 450 degree C in a pseudo spin-valve M…
Spin-resolved electron symmetry filtering is a key mechanism behind giant tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in Fe/MgO/Fe and similar magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), providing room temperature functionality in modern spin electronics. However, the core process of the electron symmetry filtering breaks down under applied bias, dramatically reducing the TMR above 0.5 V. This strongly hampers the application range of MTJs. To circumvent the problem, resonant tunneling between ferromagnetic electrodes through quantum well states in thin layers has been used so far. This mechanism, however, is mai…
We investigate the initial growth modes and the role of interfacial electrostatic interactions of EuO epitaxy on MgO(001) by reactive molecular beam epitaxy. A TiO2 interfacial layer is employed to produce high quality epitaxial growth of EuO on MgO(001) with a 45° in plane rotation. For comparison, direct deposition of EuO on MgO, without the TiO2 layer shows a much slower time evolution in producing a single crystal film. Conceptual arguments of electrostatic repulsion of like-ions are introduced to explain the increased EuO quality at the interface with the TiO2 layer. It is shown that ultr…
We report the successful electrical creation of spin polarization in p-type Si at room temperature by using an epitaxial MgO(001) tunnel barrier and Fe(001) electrode. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction observations revealed that epitaxial Fe/MgO(001) tunnel contacts can be grown on a (2 x 1) reconstructed Si surface whereas tunnel contacts grown on the (1 x 1) Si surface were polycrystalline. Transmission electron microscopy images showed a more flat interface for the epitaxial Fe/MgO/Si compared to that of the polycrystalline structure. For the Fe/MgO/p-Si devices, the Hanle and inv…
We report on systematic ab-initio investigations of Co and Cr interlayers embedded in Fe(001)/MgO/Fe(001) magnetic tunnel junctions, focusing on the changes of the electronic structure and the transport properties with interlayer thickness. The results of spin-dependent ballistic transport calculations reveal options to specifically manipulate the tunnel magnetoresistance ratio. The resistance area products and the tunnel magnetoresistance ratios show a monotonous trend with distinct oscillations as a function of the Cr thickness. These modulations are directly addressed and interpreted by mea…
In the present study we have demonstrated epitaxial stabilization of the metastable magnetically-hard $\varepsilon$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ phase on top of a thin MgO(111) buffer layer grown onto the GaN (0001) surface. The primary purpose to introduce a 4\,nm-thick buffer layer of MgO in between Fe$_2$O$_3$ and GaN was to stop thermal migration of Ga into the iron oxide layer. Though such migration and successive formation of the orthorhombic GaFeO$_3$ was supposed earlier to be a potential trigger of the nucleation of the isostructural $\varepsilon$-Fe$_2$O$_3$, the present work demonstrates that the gr…
Ab initio study of magnetoresistance effect in $\mathrm{Mn_{3}Sn}/\mathrm{MgO}/\mathrm{Mn_{3}Sn}$ antiferromagnetic tunnel junction
University of Tokyo（东京大学）；JSR Corporation（JSR公司）；Kyoto University（京都大学）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；Tokyo Metropolitan University（东京都立大学）；Tohoku University（东北大学）；RIKEN（理化学研究所）
We analyze the experimentally obtained spin-current-related magnetoresistance in epitaxial Pt/Co bilayers by using a drift-diffusion model that incorporates both bulk spin Hall effect and interfacial Rashba-Edelstein effect (REE). The magnetoresistance analysis yields, for the Pt/Co interface, a temperature-independent Rashba parameter in the order of 1e-11 eV m that agrees with theoretical calculations, along with an effective interfacial REE thickness of several angstroms which is in overall consistency with our previous spin-orbit torque analysis. In particular, our results suggest that bot…
Giant tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratios of 417% at room temperature (RT) and 914% at 3 K were demonstrated in epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe(001) exchanged-biased spin-valve magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) by tuning growth conditions for each layer, combining sputter deposition for the Fe layers, electron-beam evaporation of the MgO barrier, and barrier interface tuning. Clear TMR oscillation as a function of the MgO thickness with a large peak-to-valley difference of ~80% was observed when the layers were grown on a highly (001)-oriented Cr buffer layer. Specific features of the observed MTJs are s…
We demonstrate tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) junctions based on a tri layer system consisting of an epitaxial NiMnSb, aluminum oxide and CoFe tri layer. The junctions show a tunnelling magnetoresistance of Delta R/R of 8.7% at room temperature which increases to 14.7% at 4.2K. The layers show clear separate switching and a small ferromagnetic coupling. A uniaxial in plane anisotropy in the NiMnSb layer leads to different switching characteristics depending on the direction in which the magnetic field is applied, an effect which can be used for sensor applications.
Epitaxial semiconducting NiYBi thin films were directly prepared on MgO(100) substrates by magnetron sputtering. The intensity ratio of the (200) and (400) diffraction peaks, I(200)/I(400) = 2.93, was close to the theoretical value (3.03). The electronic structure of NiYBi was calculated using WIEN2k and a narrow indirect band gap of width 210 meV was found. The valence band spectra of the films obtained by linear dichroism in hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy exhibit clear structures that are in good agreement with the calculated band structure of NiYBi.
The spin and orbital magnetic moments of the Fe3O4 epitaxial ultrathin film synthesized by plasma assisted simultaneous oxidization on MgO(100) have been studied with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The ultrathin film retains a rather large total magnetic moment, i.e. (2.7+-0.15) uB/f.u., which is ~ 70% of that for the bulk-like Fe3O4. A significant unquenched orbital moment up to (0.54+-0.05) uB/f.u. was observed, which could come from the symmetry breaking at the Fe3O4/MgO interface. Such sizable orbital moment will add capacities to the Fe3O4-based spintronics devices in the magne…
By carrying out density functional theory analysis within the Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's functional formalism, we have calculated the nonlinear and non-equilibrium quantum transport properties of Fe/MgO/Fe trilayer structures as a function of external bias voltage. For well relaxed atomic structures of the trilayer, the equilibrium tunnel magnetoresistance ratio (TMR) is found to be very large and also fairly stable against small variations in the atomic structure. As a function of external bias voltage, the TMR reduces monotonically to zero with a voltage scale of about 1V, in agreement …
The knowledge of chemical and magnetic conditions at the Co40Fe40B20 / MgO interface is important to interpret the strong annealing temperature dependence of tunnel magnetoresistance of Co-Fe-B / MgO / Co-Fe-B magnetic tunnel junctions, which increases with annealing temperature from 20% after annealing at 200C up to a maximum value of 112% after annealing at 350C. While the well defined nearest neighbor ordering indicating crystallinity of the MgO barrier does not change by the annealing, a small amount of interfacial Fe-O at the lower Co-Fe-B / MgO interface is found in the as grown samples,…
We investigate the magnetization reversal in Fe/MgO(001) films with fourfold in-plane magnetic anisotropy and an additional uniaxial anisotropy whose orientation and strength are tuned using different growth geometries and post growth treatments. The previously adopted mechanism of 180^{o} domain wall nucleation clearly fails to explain the observed 180^{o} magnetization reversal. A new reversal mechanism with two successive domain wall nucleations consistently predicts the switching fields for all field orientations. Our results are relevant for a correct interpretation of magnetization rever…
Magnetite thin fims have been grown epitaxially on ZnO and MgO substrates using molecular beam epitaxy. The film quality was found to be strongly dependent on the oxygen partial pressure during growth. Structural, electronic, and magnetic properties were analyzed utilizing Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED), HArd X-ray PhotoElectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES), Magneto Optical Kerr Effect (MOKE), and X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD). Diffraction patterns show clear indication for growth in the (111) direction on ZnO. Vertical structure analysis by HAXPES depth profiling revealed uniform …
Voltage control of magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) in magnetic heterostructures is a key technology for achieving energy-efficiency electronic devices with ultralow power consumption. Here, we report the first demonstration of the VCMA effect in novel epitaxial Ru/Co2FeAl(CFA)/MgO heterostructures with interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Perpendicularly magnetized tunnel junctions with the structure of Ru/CFA/MgO were fabricated and exhibited an effective voltage control on switching fields for the CFA free layer. A large VCMA coefficient of 108 (139) fJ/Vm for the CFA film was ach…
We study the spin-orbit torque (SOT) effective fields in Cr/CoFeAl/MgO and Ru/CoFeAl/MgO magnetic heterostructures using the adiabatic harmonic Hall measurement. High-quality perpendicular-magnetic-anisotropy CoFeAl layers were grown on Cr and Ru layers. The magnitudes of the SOT effective fields were found to significantly depend on the underlayer material (Cr or Ru) as well as their thicknesses. The damping-like longitudinal effective field (ΔH_L) increases with increasing underlayer thickness for all heterostructures. In contrast, the field-like transverse effective field (ΔH_T) increases w…
Group-IV-based ferromagnetic semiconductor Ge1-xFex (GeFe) is one of the most promising materials for efficient spin injectors and detectors for Si and Ge. Recent first principles calculations (Sakamoto et al., Ref. 9) suggested that the Fermi level is located in two overlapping largely spin-polarized bands formed in the bandgap of GeFe; spin-down d(e) band and spin-up p-d(t2) band. Thus, it is important to clarify how these bands contribute to spin injection and detection. In this study, we show the first successful observation of the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in magnetic tunnel junct…
We investigated the relationship between tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio and the crystallization of CoFeB layers through annealing in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with MgO barriers that had CoFe/Ru/CoFeB synthetic ferrimagnet pinned layers with varying Ru spacer thickness (tRu). The TMR ratio increased with increasing annealing temperature (Ta) and tRu, reaching 361% at Ta = 425C, whereas the TMR ratio of the MTJs with pinned layers without Ru spacers decreased at Ta over 325C. Ruthenium spacers play an important role in forming an (001)-oriented bcc CoFeB pinned layer, resulting in a…
Anti-phase boundaries (APBs) normally form as a consequence of the initial growth conditions in all spinel ferrite thin films. The presence of APBs in epitaxial films of the inverse spinel Fe3O4 alters their electronic and magnetic properties due to strong antiferromagnetic (AF) interactions across these boundaries. The effect of using in-situ electric field assisted growth on the migration of APBs in hetero epitaxial Fe3O4(100)/MgO(100) thin films have been explored in the present work. The electric field assisted growth is found to reduce the AF interactions across APBs and as a consequence …
An unusual crystallographic orientation of hexagonal Ru with a 4-fold symmetry emerging in epitaxial MgO/Ru/Co2FeAl/MgO heterostructures is reported, in which an approximately Ru(02-23) growth attributes to the lattice matching among MgO, Ru, and Co2FeAl. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the Co2FeAl/MgO interface is substantially enhanced as compared with those with a Cr(001) layer. The MTJs incorporating this structure gave rise to the largest tunnel magnetoresistance for perpendicular MTJs using low damping Heusler alloys. The 4-fold-symmetry hexagonal Ru arises from an epitaxial growth …
The biaxially textured growth of superconducting Co-doped BaFe2As2 (Ba-122) thin films has been realized on ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) MgO coated conductor templates by employing an iron buffer architecture. The iron pnictide coated conductor showed a superconducting transition temperature of 21.5 K, which is slightly lower than that of Co-doped Ba-122 films on single crystalline MgO substrates. A self-field critical current density of over 10^5 A/cm2 has already been achieved even at 8 K. The current experiment highlights the potential of possible coated conductor applications of the…
Although both theoretical predications and experimental observations demonstrated that the damping factor is anisotropic at ferromagnet/semiconductor interface with robust interfacial spin-orbit coupling, it is not well understood whether non-local Gilbert damping driven by spin currents in heavy metal/ferromagnetic metal (HM/FM) bilayers is anisotropic or not. Here, we investigated the in-plane angular- and frequency- dependence of magnetic relaxation of epitaxial Fe/MgO(001) films with different capping layers of Pd and Cu. After disentangling the parasitic contributions, such as two-magnon …
We fabricate fully epitaxial Fe/ZnO/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a bilayer tunnel barrier, in which ZnO has a metastable rock-salt crystal structure. We observe a high magnetoresistance ratio up to 96% at room temperature (RT) and find that these MTJs have asymmetric current-voltage characteristics, and their rectifying performances are largely dependent on the magnetization alignments of the Fe electrodes. Diode responsibilities at a zero-bias voltage ($β_{0}$), which is an important performance index for harvesting applications, are observed up to 1.3 A/W at RT in the antipar…
We studied the thermoelectric coefficients (Seebeck and thermal conductance)of FeCo|MgO|FeCo(001) magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) from first principles using a generalized Landauer-Büttiker formalism. FeCo|MgO|FeCo(001) MTJs usually yield smaller thermoelectric effects compared with epitaxial Fe|MgO|Fe(001) MTJs. The (magneto-) Seebeck effect is sensitive to the details of the FeCo$|$MgO interfaces. Interfacial oxygen vacancies (OVs) can enhance the thermoelectric effects in MTJs greatly. We also compute angular dependent Seebeck coefficients that provide more information about the transport …
Magnetite (Fe3O4) is an eligible candidate for magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) since it shows a high spin polarization at the Fermi level as well as a high Curie temperature of 585°C. In this study, Fe3O4/MgO/Co-Fe-B MTJs were manufactured. A sign change in the TMR is observed after annealing the MTJs at temperatures between 200°C and 280°C. Our findings suggest an Mg interdiffusion from the MgO barrier into the Fe3O4 as the reason for the change of the TMR. Additionally, different treatments of the magnetite interface (argon bombardment, annealing at 200°C in oxygen atmosphere) during the pr…
Spin-valve is a microelectronic device in which high and low resistance states are realized by utilizing both charge and spin of carriers. Spin-valve structures used in modern hard drive read-heads and magnetic random access memories comprise two ferromagnetic (FM) electrodes whose relative magnetization orientations can be switched between parallel and antiparallel configurations, yielding the desired giant or tunneling magnetoresistance effect. In this paper we demonstrate >100$% spin-valve-like signal in a NiFe/IrMn/MgO/Pt stack with an antiferromagnet (AFM) on one side and a non-magnetic m…
The electronic transport and spincaloric properties of epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions with half-metallic Co$_2$MnSi Heusler electrodes, MgO tunneling barriers, and different interface terminations are investigated by using first-principles calculations. A new approach to spincaloric properties is presented that circumvents the linear response approximation inherent in the Seebeck coefficient and compared to the method of Sivan and Imry. This approach supports two different temperatures in the two electrodes and provides the exact current and/or voltage response of the system. Moreover, it…
The electronic structure and spin-dependent tunneling in epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe(001) tunnel junctions are studied using first-principles calculations. For small MgO barrier thickness the minority-spin resonant bands at the two interfaces make a significant contribution to the tunneling conductance for the antiparallel magnetization, whereas these bands are, in practice, mismatched by disorder and/or small applied bias for the parallel magnetization. This explains the experimentally observed decrease in tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) for thin MgO barriers. We predict that a monolayer of Ag epit…
The exploration of electric field controlled magnetism has come under scrutiny for its intriguing magnetoelectric phenomenon as well as technological advances in spintronics. Herein, the tremendous effect of an epitaxial strain on voltage-controlled perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (VPMA) is demonstrated in a transition-metal/ferromagnet/MgO (TM/FM/MgO) heterostructure from first-principles electronic structure computation. By tuning the epitaxial strain in Ta/Fe/MgO as a model system of TM/FM/MgO, we find distinctly different behaviours of VPMA from V- to Λ-shape trends with a substantially …
Low-temperature epitaxial growth of refractory transition-metal nitride thin films by means of physical vapor deposition has been a recurring theme in advanced thin-film technology for several years. In the present study, 150-nm-thick epitaxial HfN layers are grown on MgO(001) by reactive high-impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) with no external substrate heating. Maximum film growth temperatures Ts due to plasma heating range from 70-150 °C, corresponding to Ts/Tm = 0.10-0.12 (in which Tm is the HfN melting point in K). During HiPIMS, gas and sputtered-metal ion fluxes incident at the growi…
We report the growth of MgO[001]//Fe(6 nm)/MgO(7 nm) and MgO[001]//Fe(6 nm)/Pt(6 nm) by molecular beam epitaxy and show that the full characterization by spin-orbit ferromagnetic resonance (SO-FMR) allows the determination of magnetic anisotropies as by classical FMR-only studies. The spin mixing conductance of epitaxial Fe/Pt interface was measured to be (1.5 +- 0.5)x10^19 m^2, and the effective spin Hall angle (SHA), was estimated at different in-plane crystalline directions. It was found that SHA is the same in all directions. When taking into account high enough excitation frequencies to a…
