Superparamagnetic ground state of CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junction with dual-barrier
Tran Thanh Nga1*, Tu Ngoc Lam1, Chao Yao Yang1, Wen Chin Lin2, Po Wen Chen3, Yuan Chieh Tseng1
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
2Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
3Division of Physics, Institute of Nuclear Engineer Research, TaoYuan, Taiwan
* Presenter:Tran Thanh Nga, email:tranthithanhnga91@gmail.com
CoFeB/MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have considerable potential in magnetic random access memory (MRAM), thanks to their tunable perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Interface, electronic and transport characterizations were utilized to approach the modified magnetic properties driven by the dual-MgO structure in this work. We found significant reduction of dead-layer by inserting additional MgO into the MTJ structure. The dual-MgO structure appeared to hinder boron (B) diffusion into the metallic layer and prevent capping-layer (Ta) penetration across the interface, compared with single-MgO. This suppressed the dead-layer effect and promoted overall magnetization despite PMA degradation. A robust BOx phase that formed within the dual-MgO structure presented a superparamagnetic ground state (SPM). In the single-MgO structure, any reduction in the thickness of the CoFeB promoted PMA, albeit at the cost of spin-polarization. The dual-MgO structure could restore spin-polarization by preferentially populating spin electrons into Fe/Co minority states. X-ray magnetic spectroscopy and anomalous Hall effect suggest that, the dual-MgO differs from the single-MgO with a favorable longitudinal polarized spin-channel. This makes the dual-MgO structure applicable to applications requiring in-plane rather than out-of-plane sensing.
Keywords: Magnetic tunnel junction, Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, Superparamagnetic