Published in

American Institute of Physics, AIP Advances, 1(2), p. 012150

DOI: 10.1063/1.3690139

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

The role of Mg interface layer in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions with CoFe and CoFeB electrodes

Journal article published in 2012 by Hyunsoo Yang ORCID, See-Hun Yang, Stuart Parkin
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The tunneling spin polarization (TSP) is directly measured from reactively sputter deposited crystalline MgO tunnel barriers with various CoFe(B) compositions using superconducting tunneling spectroscopy. We find that the Mg interface layer thickness dependence of TSP values for CoFeB/Mg/MgO junctions is substantially different from those for CoFe/Mg/MgO especially in the pre-annealed samples due to the formation of boron oxide at the CoFeB/MgO interface. Annealing depletes boron at the interface thus requiring a finite Mg interface layer to prevent CoFeOx formation at the CoFeB/MgO interface so that the TSP values can be optimized by controlling Mg thickness.