Two types of tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (TZP), a ceria-stabilized TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposite (CZA) and a conventional yttria-stabilized TZP (Y-TZP), were sandblasted with 70-μm alumina and 125-μm SiC powders, then partially annealed at 500-1200℃ for five minutes. Monoclinic ZrO2 content was determined by X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectroscopy. Biaxial flexure test was conducted on the specimens before and after the treatments. Monoclinic ZrO2 content and biaxial flexure strength increased after sandblasting, but decreased after heat treatment. However, in both cases, the strength of CZA was higher than that of Y-TZP. Raman spectroscopy showed that a compressive stress field was introduced on the sample surface after sandblasting. It was concluded that sandblasting induced tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation and that the volume expansion associated with such a phase transformation gave rise to an increase in compressive stress on the surface of CZA. With the occurrence of such a strengthening mechanism in the microstructure, it was concluded that CZA was more susceptible to stress-induced transformation than Y-TZP.

We investigate properties of perpendicular anisotropy magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a recording structure of MgO/CoFeB/Ta/CoFeB/MgO down to junction diameter (D) of 11 nm from 56 nm. Thermal stability factor (Δ) of MTJ with the structure starts to decrease at D = 30 nm. D dependence of Δ agrees well with that expected from magnetic properties of blanket film taking into account the change in demagnetizing factors of MTJs. Intrinsic critical current (IC0) reduces with decrease of D in the entire investigated D range. A ratio of Δ to IC0 shows continuous increase with decrease of D down to 11 nm.

We investigated perpendicular CoFeB-MgO magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a recording structure consisting of two CoFeB-MgO interfaces, MgO/CoFeB (1.6 nm)/Ta (0.4 nm)/CoFeB (1.0 nm)/MgO. Thermal stability factor of MTJ with the structure having junction size of 70 nmφ was increased by a factor of 1.9 from the highest value of perpendicular MTJs with single CoFeB-MgO interface having the same device structure. On the other hand, intrinsic critical current for spin transfer torque switching of the double- and single-interface MTJs was comparable.

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We study the device size dependence of spin-orbit torque induced magnetization switching in a Ta/CoFeB/MgO structure with perpendicular easy axis. The miniaturization of the device from micrometer-sized wire to 80-nm dot results in the increase of the threshold current density Jth by one order, whereas Jth increases only slightly with further reducing the device size down to 30 nm. No significant increase in Jth is seen, as the current pulse width decreases from 100 ms down to 3 ns. We reveal that the switching in devices at reduced size is reasonably well explained by the macrospin model, in which the effects of both the Slonczewski-like torque and field-like torque are included.

We show that the magnetic characteristics of Ta|CoFeB|MgO magnetic heterostructures are strongly influenced by doping the Ta underlayer with nitrogen. In particular, the saturation magnetization drops upon doping the Ta underlayer, suggesting that the doped underlayer acts as a boron diffusion barrier. In addition, the thickness of the magnetic dead layer decreases with increasing nitrogen doping. Surprisingly, the interface magnetic anisotropy increases to ~1.8 erg/cm 2 when an optimum amount of nitrogen is introduced into the Ta underlayer. These results show that nitrogen doped Ta serves as a good underlayer for Spintronics applications including magnetic tunnel junctions and domain wall devices.*Email: hayashi.masamitsu@nims.go.jp Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is one of the key material parameters in modern spintronics devices. 1 The threshold current needed to switch the direction of magnetic moments in magnetic tunnel junctions and the current required to move magnetic domain walls in magnetic nanowires can be significantly reduced by introducing perpendicularly magnetized materials into the system. 2-5 For device application purposes, the magnetic layer needs to be thin enough such that current induced torques, including conventional spin transfer torques 6, 7 and more recently discovered spin orbit torques, 8-10 can act on the magnetic moments to switch the magnetization and/or move domain walls. An attractive step towards building suitable materials systems for such applications is to make use of the interface magnetic anisotropy, which plays an important role in thin film heterostructures, in particular, in metallic multilayers. 11,12 Interface PMA allows the system to maintain its magnetic anisotropy down to small thicknesses, whereas the bulk anisotropy, including crystalline and magneto-elastic anisotropies, are lowered as the thickness is reduced. 13 Recently, it has been reported that significant interface PMA exists in CoFeB|MgO, 2 a system that is at the heart of advanced magnetic tunnel junctions. As the CoFeB thickness is reduced, the magnetic easy axis changes from lying within the film plane to lying along the film normal owing to the large PMA at the CoFeB|MgO interface.Recent theoretical calculations suggest that the large PMA at this interface is due to an electronic effect. 14 On the other hand, it has been experimentally shown that the underlayer immediately adjacent to the opposite side of the CoFeB layer also plays a critical role in determining the magnitude of PMA. 3,15 Up to date, Ta (or, more recently, Hf 15 ) is considered to be the optimal choice for introducing large PMA for CoFeB|MgO.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the mechanical durability of a zirconia/alumina nanocomposite stabilized with cerium oxide (Ce-TZP/Al(2)O(3) nanocomposite) in comparison to yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) and discuss its application on ceramic dental restorations. The disk-shaped specimens of both materials were stored in physiological saline solution at 80 degrees C for 30 days, in 4% acetic acid at 80 degrees C for 30 days, and in an autoclave at 121 degrees C for 10 days. Before and after storage, specimens were subjected to the biaxial flexure test and to the determination of the monoclinic zirconia content. After autoclaving, Y-TZP showed remarkable increasing of the content of monoclinic zirconia: 0.3 vol % before and 49.9 vol % after, and slight decreasing of biaxial flexure strength: 1046 MPa before and 892 MPa after; whereas Ce-TZP/Al(2)O(3) nanocomposite showed no significant difference in the monoclinic content (4.8-5.5 vol %) and the biaxial flexure strength (1371-1422 MPa) after storage in any conditions. It is concluded that, compared to Y-TZP, the Ce-TZP/Al(2)O(3) nanocomposite has a high biaxial flexure strength along with a satisfactory durability in terms of low-temperature aging degradation in above conditions. This study indicates that the Ce-TZP/Al(2)O(3) nanocomposite demonstrates excellent mechanical durability for dental restorations such as all-ceramic bridges.

Nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions play a pivotal role in magnetoresistive random access memories. Successful implementation depends on a simultaneous achievement of low switching current for the magnetization switching by spin transfer torque and high thermal stability, along with a continuous reduction of junction size. Perpendicular easy-axis CoFeB/MgO stacks possessing interfacial anisotropy have paved the way down to 20-nm scale, below which a new approach needs to be explored. Here we show magnetic tunnel junctions that satisfy the requirements at ultrafine scale by revisiting shape anisotropy, which is a classical part of magnetic anisotropy but has not been fully utilized in the current perpendicular systems. Magnetization switching solely driven by current is achieved for junctions smaller than 10 nm where sufficient thermal stability is provided by shape anisotropy without adopting new material systems. This work is expected to push forward the development of magnetic tunnel junctions toward single-digit nm-scale nano-magnetics/spintronics.