Low resistance and high thermal stability of spin-dependent tunnel junctions with synthetic antiferromagnetic CoFe/Ru/CoFe pinned layers

J. J. Sun; K. Shimazawa; N. Kasahara; K. Sato; S. Saruki; T. Kagami; O. Redon; S. Araki; H. Morita; M. Matsuzaki

doi:10.1063/1.126364

Low resistance and high thermal stability of spin-dependent tunnel junctions with synthetic antiferromagnetic CoFe/Ru/CoFe pinned layers

J. J. Sun, K. Shimazawa, N. Kasahara, K. Sato, S. Saruki, T. Kagami, O. Redon, S. Araki, H. Morita, M. Matsuzaki

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Abstract

In this work, submicron-size (down to 0.273 μm²) spin-dependent tunnel junctions with resistance as low as ∼30 Ω μm² have been fabricated, where the tunneling barrier of AlO_x was formed by in situ natural oxidation. These junctions annealed at 250°C for 5 h showed tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of 14.3% and 25.8% for the pinned layers of CoFe/RuRhMn and CoFe/ PtMn, respectively, while the TMR is further increased to 31.6% for a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer of CoFe/Ru/CoFe/PtMn due to less interdiffusion at CoFe/Ru interface. The investigation has indicated that the growth of ultrathin Al layer is very sensitive to the surface roughness of bottom ferromagnetic electrode, and large surface roughness leads to small junction resistance.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2424-2426
Number of pages	3
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	76
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.126364
Publication status	Published - 2000 Apr 24
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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10.1063/1.126364

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title = "Low resistance and high thermal stability of spin-dependent tunnel junctions with synthetic antiferromagnetic CoFe/Ru/CoFe pinned layers",

abstract = "In this work, submicron-size (down to 0.273 μm2) spin-dependent tunnel junctions with resistance as low as ∼30 Ω μm2 have been fabricated, where the tunneling barrier of AlOx was formed by in situ natural oxidation. These junctions annealed at 250°C for 5 h showed tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of 14.3% and 25.8% for the pinned layers of CoFe/RuRhMn and CoFe/ PtMn, respectively, while the TMR is further increased to 31.6% for a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer of CoFe/Ru/CoFe/PtMn due to less interdiffusion at CoFe/Ru interface. The investigation has indicated that the growth of ultrathin Al layer is very sensitive to the surface roughness of bottom ferromagnetic electrode, and large surface roughness leads to small junction resistance.",

author = "Sun, {J. J.} and K. Shimazawa and N. Kasahara and K. Sato and S. Saruki and T. Kagami and O. Redon and S. Araki and H. Morita and M. Matsuzaki",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Low resistance and high thermal stability of spin-dependent tunnel junctions with synthetic antiferromagnetic CoFe/Ru/CoFe pinned layers

AU - Sun, J. J.

AU - Shimazawa, K.

AU - Kasahara, N.

AU - Sato, K.

AU - Saruki, S.

AU - Kagami, T.

AU - Redon, O.

AU - Araki, S.

AU - Morita, H.

AU - Matsuzaki, M.

PY - 2000/4/24

Y1 - 2000/4/24

N2 - In this work, submicron-size (down to 0.273 μm2) spin-dependent tunnel junctions with resistance as low as ∼30 Ω μm2 have been fabricated, where the tunneling barrier of AlOx was formed by in situ natural oxidation. These junctions annealed at 250°C for 5 h showed tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of 14.3% and 25.8% for the pinned layers of CoFe/RuRhMn and CoFe/ PtMn, respectively, while the TMR is further increased to 31.6% for a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer of CoFe/Ru/CoFe/PtMn due to less interdiffusion at CoFe/Ru interface. The investigation has indicated that the growth of ultrathin Al layer is very sensitive to the surface roughness of bottom ferromagnetic electrode, and large surface roughness leads to small junction resistance.

AB - In this work, submicron-size (down to 0.273 μm2) spin-dependent tunnel junctions with resistance as low as ∼30 Ω μm2 have been fabricated, where the tunneling barrier of AlOx was formed by in situ natural oxidation. These junctions annealed at 250°C for 5 h showed tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of 14.3% and 25.8% for the pinned layers of CoFe/RuRhMn and CoFe/ PtMn, respectively, while the TMR is further increased to 31.6% for a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer of CoFe/Ru/CoFe/PtMn due to less interdiffusion at CoFe/Ru interface. The investigation has indicated that the growth of ultrathin Al layer is very sensitive to the surface roughness of bottom ferromagnetic electrode, and large surface roughness leads to small junction resistance.

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JF - Applied Physics Letters

SN - 0003-6951

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Low resistance and high thermal stability of spin-dependent tunnel junctions with synthetic antiferromagnetic CoFe/Ru/CoFe pinned layers

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