Boron diffusion in magnetic tunnel junctions with MgO (001) barriers and CoFeB electrodes

Kurt, H.; Rode, K.; Oguz, K.; Boese, M.; Faulkner, C. C.; Coey, J. M. D.

doi:doi:10.1063/1.3457475

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Control of transmission in disordered graphene nanojunctions through stochastic resonance

We investigate electronic transport in graphene nanojunctions and find that the transmission (or the conductance) can exhibit a nonmonotonic behavior with respect to variation in the strength of disorder, mimicking a stochastic resonance. The general setting for this remarkable phenomenon is where the graphene device possesses localized states in the absence of disorder, i.e., the localized edge states specific to graphene. A small amount of disorder can then break the localization and lead to ...

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Boron diffusion out of the CoFeB layers in model systems with thick CoFeB and MgO layers grown by radiofrequency sputtering or electron-beam evaporation and in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) is probed after annealing by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy. Successive interfaces are exposed by ion milling the stacks, layer by layer, in the XPS system. Despite the presence of thick CoFeB and a high annealing temperature of 400 °C, we found no boron in the MgO or at the MgO/CoFe interfaces. Similar results are also obtained in the MTJs.

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

annealing, boron alloys, cobalt alloys, electron energy loss spectra, interface structure, iron alloys, magnesium compounds, magnetic multilayers, sputter deposition, surface diffusion, tunnelling magnetoresistance, vacuum deposition, X-ray photoelectron spectra

PACS

81.15.Cd

Deposition by sputtering
81.15.Dj

E-beam and hot filament evaporation deposition
75.70.Cn

Magnetic properties of interfaces (multilayers, superlattices, heterostructures)
75.47.De

Giant magnetoresistance
81.40.Gh

Other heat and thermomechanical treatments
82.80.Pv

Electron spectroscopy (X-ray photoelectron (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), etc.)

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3457475

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0003-6951 (print)

1077-3118 (online)

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$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef

American Institute of Physics

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