Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with ferromagnetic electrodes possessing a perpendicular magnetic easy axis are of great interest as they have a potential for realizing next-generation high-density non-volatile memory and logic chips with high thermal stability and low critical current for current-induced magnetization switching. To attain perpendicular anisotropy, a number of material systems have been explored as electrodes, which include rare-earth/transition-metal alloys, L1(0)-ordered (Co, Fe)-Pt alloys and Co/(Pd, Pt) multilayers. However, none of them so far satisfy high thermal stability at reduced dimension, low-current current-induced magnetization switching and high tunnel magnetoresistance ratio all at the same time. Here, we use interfacial perpendicular anisotropy between the ferromagnetic electrodes and the tunnel barrier of the MTJ by employing the material combination of CoFeB-MgO, a system widely adopted to produce a giant tunnel magnetoresistance ratio in MTJs with in-plane anisotropy. This approach requires no material other than those used in conventional in-plane-anisotropy MTJs. The perpendicular MTJs consisting of Ta/CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB/Ta show a high tunnel magnetoresistance ratio, over 120%, high thermal stability at dimension as low as 40 nm diameter and a low switching current of 49 microA.
Assembled Fe3O4 nanoparticles on graphene for enhanced electromagnetic wave losses Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 153108 (2012) Magnetization reversal and magnetoresistance behavior of perpendicularly magnetized [Co/Pd]4/Au/[Co/Pd]2 nanowires J. Appl. Phys. 112, 073902 (2012) Electric-field control of CoFeB/IrMn exchange bias system J. Appl. Phys. 112, 064120 (2012) Critical effect of spin-dependent transport in a tunnel barrier on enhanced Hanle-type signals observed in threeterminal geometry Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 132411 (2012) Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in epitaxial Co2MnSi/MgO/Co2MnSi magnetic tunnel junctions by halfmetallicity of Co2MnSi and coherent tunneling
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.