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Applied Physics Letters / Volume 96 / Issue 26 / MAGNETISM AND SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 262506 (2010); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3458701 (3 pages)

Tunneling processes in thin MgO magnetic junctions

J. M. Teixeira1, J. Ventura1, J. P. Araujo1, J. B. Sousa1, P. Wisniowski2,3, and P. P. Freitas3

1Departamento de Fisica, IFIMUP and IN-Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
2Department of Electronics, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
3INESC-MN and IN-Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Rua Alves Redol, 9-1, 1000-029 Lisbon, Portugal

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(Received 11 May 2010; accepted 8 June 2010; published online 29 June 2010)

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with MgO barriers are used in a variety of applications, from read heads to novel microwave devices. In this work, we probed the temperature (T) dependence of the electrical transport of sputtered CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB MTJs with different barrier thicknesses (tb = 0.75–1.35 nm). We show evidence that spin-polarized direct elastic tunneling is the dominant mechanism determining the T-dependence of the tunnel conductance (G) and magnetoresistance for tb ≥ 0.85 nm. Also, the electronic thermal smearing near the Fermi level plays a key role in G(T). We observe the onset of pinholes for MTJs with 0.75 nm of MgO, with a transition to metallic-like transport.

© 2010 American Institute of Physics

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

boron alloys, cobalt alloys, Fermi level, iron alloys, magnesium compounds, magnetic tunnelling, spin polarised transport, tunnelling magnetoresistance

PACS

  • 75.47.Lx

    Magnetic oxides

  • 72.25.-b

    Spin polarized transport

  • 73.50.Jt

    Galvanomagnetic and other magnetotransport effects (including thermomagnetic effects)

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3458701

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0003-6951 (print)  
1077-3118 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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