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Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a stacking structure of Co2MnSi∕Al–O∕Co2MnSi were fabricated using magnetron sputtering system. Fabricated MTJ exhibited an extremely large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of 570% at low temperature, which is the highest TMR ratio reported to date for an amorphous Al–O tunneling barrier. The observed dependence of tunneling conductance on bias voltage clearly reveals the half-metallic energy gap of Co2MnSi. The origins of large temperature dependence of TMR ratio were discussed on the basis of the present results.

The out-of-plane angular dependence of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) was measured for NM/80NiFe(Py)/NM (NM=Cu, Ta, Pd and Pt) films with various Py, Cu and Ta thicknesses fabricated by magnetron sputtering. The out-of-plane angular dependences of FMR resonance field and linewidth were analyzed using Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation taking account of broadening of linewidth due to magnetic inhomogeneities in a film. Magnetic inhomogeneities were assumed to be the fluctuation of magnitude and direction of the effective demagnetization field which contains both demagnetization and perpendicular anisotropy field for a film. The calculations of the angular variations of linewidth agreed with the experimental ones quantitatively. The fluctuations of magnitude and direction of the effective demagnetization field, which are represented as Δ(4πM eff.) and Δθ H , respectively, increased with decreasing Py thickness for all NM/Py/NM films. Δθ H increased as the thicknesses of the buffer layers increased for Cu/Py(40 Å)/Cu films and was almost constant with increasing buffer layer thickness for Ta/Py(40 Å)/Ta films. Only in the case of NM=Pd and Pt films, the Gilbert damping parameter, which is the speed of decay of magnetization precession, was enhanced significantly as compared with that for the bulk sample and was dependent on Py thickness.

Spin precession with frequencies up to 280 GHz is observed in Mn(3-δ)Ga alloy films with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy constant K(u)∼15  M erg/cm(3). The damping constant α, characterizing macroscopic spin relaxation and being a key factor in spin-transfer-torque systems, is not larger than 0.008 (0.015) for the δ=1.46 (0.88) film. Those are about one-tenth of α values for known materials with large K(u). First-principles calculations well describe both low α and large K(u) for these alloys.

Gilbert damping for the epitaxial Co2FeAl Heusler alloy films was investigated. Gilbert damping constant for the films was evaluated by analyzing the data of ferromagnetic resonance measured at the frequency of 2–20 GHz. Gilbert damping constant for the film without annealing was rather large, while it decreased remarkably with postannealing. Gilbert damping constant for the film annealed at 600 °C was ≃0.001. These behavior of Gilbert damping constant can be well explained by the fact that the density of states calculated from first principles decreases with increasing the degree of B2 order.

The integration of organic semiconductors and magnetism has been a fascinating topic for fundamental scientific research and future applications in electronics, because organic semiconductors are expected to possess a large spin-dependent transport length based on weak spin-orbit coupling and weak hyperfine interaction. However, to date, this length has typically been limited to several nanometres at room temperature, and a large length has only been observed at low temperatures. Here we report on a novel organic spin valve device using C 60 as the spacer layer. A magnetoresistance ratio of over 5% was observed at room temperature, which is one of the highest magnetoresistance ratios ever reported. Most importantly, a large spin-dependent transport length of approximately 110 nm was experimentally observed for the C 60 layer at room temperature. These results provide insights for further understanding spin transport in organic semiconductors and may strongly advance the development of spin-based organic devices.

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