R.M. Macfarlane, R.L. Cone
Physical Review B - CMMP
Magnetically engineered magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) show promise as non-volatile storage cells in high-performance solid-state magnetic random access memories (MRAM)1. The performance of these devices is currently limited by the modest (<∼70%) room-temperature tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) of technologically relevant MTJs. Much higher TMR values have been theoretically predicted for perfectly ordered (100) oriented single-crystalline Fe/MgO/Fe MTJs. Here we show that sputter-deposited polycrystalline MTJs grown on an amorphous underlayer, but with highly oriented (100) MgO tunnel barriers and CoFe electrodes, exhibit TMR values of up to ∼220% at room temperature and ∼300% at low temperatures. Consistent with these high TMR values, superconducting tunnelling spectroscopy experiments indicate that the tunnelling current has a very high spin polarization of ∼85%, which rivals that previously observed only using half-metallic ferromagnets2. Such high values of spin polarization and TMR in readily manufactureable and highly thermally stable devices (up to 400°C) will accelerate the development of new families of spintronic devices.
R.M. Macfarlane, R.L. Cone
Physical Review B - CMMP
J.H. Kaufman, Owen R. Melroy, et al.
Synthetic Metals
Imran Nasim, Melanie Weber
SCML 2024
Zelek S. Herman, Robert F. Kirchner, et al.
Inorganic Chemistry