No abstract

The influence of the mixed inert gas species for plasma oxidization process of a metallic Al layer on the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) was investigated for a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), Ta 50 Å/Cu 200 Å/Ta 200 Å/Ni–Fe 50 Å/Cu 50 Å/Mn75Ir25 100 Å/Co70Fe30 25 Å/Al–O/Co70Fe30 25 Å/Ni–Fe 100 Å/Cu 200 Å/Ta 50 Å. Using Kr–O2 plasma, a 58.8% of TMR ratio was obtained at room temperature after annealing the junction at 300 °C, while the achieved TMR ratio of the MTJ fabricated with usual Ar–O2 plasma remained 48.6%. A faster oxidization rate of the Al layer by using Kr–O2 plasma is a possible cause to prevent the over oxidization of the Al layer, which depolarizes the surface of the underlaid ferromagnetic electrode, and to realize a large magnetoresistance.

No abstract

The hot-carrier solar cell (HC-SC) is an ambitious approach to solar energy conversion which in principle can achieve high efficiency (84%) from a single bandgap semiconductor. Here we propose a method of utilising hot-carriers within a photovoltaic device in which energy is extracted optically from a hot-carrier distribution rather than through the usual approach of electrical conduction. Depending on the optical extraction rate, the concept proposed here may attain an upper efficiency approaching that of the conventional HC-SC.