Search results for "tunnel magnetoresistance"

Self-assembled monolayers based spintronics: from ferromagnetic surface functionalization to spin-dependent transport.

2016

Chemically functionalized surfaces are studied for a wide range of applications going from medicine to electronics. Whereas non-magnetic surfaces have been widely studied, functionalization of magnetic surfaces is much less common and has almost never been used for spintronics applications. In this article we present the functionalization of La2/3Sr1/3MnO3, a ferromagnetic oxide, with self-assembled monolayers for spintronics. La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 is the prototypical half-metallic manganite used in spintronics studies. First, we show that La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 can be functionalized by alkylphosphonic acid molecules. We then emphasize the use of these functionalized surfaces in spintronics devices such a…

Adiabatic quantum pumping, magnification effects and quantum size effects of spin-torque in magnetic tunnel junctions

2010

We study the adiabatic quantum pumping and quantum size effects of spin-torque in a magnetic tunnel junction within a scattering matrix approach. Quantum size effects are predicted in the presence of a dc bias as a function of the thickness of the normal metal layer inserted between two magnetic layers and of the fixed magnetic layer. In the presence of ac voltages, the results for the spin-torque show a peculiar magnification effect and advantages of spin-torque pumping in actual devices are also discussed.

Introduction to Spintronics

2015

Spintronics was born in 1988 with the discovery of GMR provided simultaneously by A. Fert and P. Grunberg and rewarded in 2007 with the Nobel Prize in Physics. This field has since been largely exploited on the market, for example it has been at the base of every hard disk read head. Spintronics field is extremely active and interesting from both a fundamental point of view and for technological applications. Currently, with the aim at new functionalities, there is an increased activity from materials research perspective to understand and develop spintronics devices using materials with new properties like carbon nanotubes, graphene, topological insulators and molecules. This chapter will …

Morphology and magnetoresistance of Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al-based tunnelling junctions

2009

Some ferromagnetic Heusler compounds are theoretically predicted to be half metallic materials, i.e. to be characterized by a huge spin polarization at the Fermi energy. We investigate the correlations between junction preparation conditions, morphology and transport properties of planar MgO/Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al/AlOx/Co/CoOx/Pt tunnelling junctions. Epitaxial Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al thin films were deposited by dc and rf magnetron sputtering on different buffer layers (Cr, Fe, MgO) on MgO(1 0 0) substrates. By RHEED, LEED and in situ STM investigations different surface morphologies were observed. Atomically flat surfaces with Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al unit cell sized steps (B2 structure) were obtained by rf sput…

MgO Magnetic Tunnel Junction Electrical Current Sensor With Integrated Ru Thermal Sensor

2013

Full Wheatstone bridge electrical current sensor incorporating 114 MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction elements (3 × 30 μm2) connected in series was produced for improved electrical robustness. To that end, magnetic tunnel junctions with R × A ~7 KΩ μm2 tunneling magnetoresistance of 200%, were produced. The sensor was designed with an integrated Ru thin film resistive thermal detector (RTD) for temperature drift monitoring and compensation. In order to achieve a full bridge signal, a U-shaped copper trace was placed under a printed circuit board (PCB) specifically designed for this type of device. The resulting device exhibit sensitivities of 63.9 V/Oe/A in a 75 Oe linear range biased with …

Magnetic domain-wall racetrack memory for high density and fast data storage

2012

The racetrack memory device is a new concept of Magnetic RAM (MRAM) based on controlling domain wall (DW) motion in ferromagnetic nanowires. It promises ultra-high storage density thanks to the possibility to store multiple narrow DWS per memory cell. By using read and write heads based on magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) fast data access speed can also be achieved. Thereby the racetrack memory can be used as universal storage to address both embedded and standalone applications. In this paper, we present the device physics, integration circuit and architecture designs of a racetrack memory based on MTJs with PMA. Mixed SPICE simulations at 65 nm …

Fractional Modeling of the AC Large-Signal Frequency Response in Magnetoresistive Current Sensors

2013

Fractional calculus is considered when derivatives and integrals of non-integer order are applied over a specific function. In the electrical and electronic domain, the transfer function dependence of a fractional filter not only by the filter order n, but additionally, of the fractional order α is an example of a great number of systems where its input-output behavior could be more exactly modeled by a fractional behavior. Following this aim, the present work shows the experimental ac large-signal frequency response of a family of electrical current sensors based in different spintronic conduction mechanisms. Using an ac characterization set-up the sensor transimpedance function  is obtain…

Nanosession: Spin Tunneling Systems

2013

SAMs Based Device Fabrication and Characterization

2015

Despite the high potentiality of SAMs for spintronics, not many results exist at the moment in the literature. This lack of results is mainly due to the difficulty to fabricate the devices. The two main technological problems consist in the ferromagnetic electrodes compatibility issues with wet chemistry and the short-circuit formation during top electrode deposition. A part of this thesis has been committed to overcome these technological problems. This chapter will explain the steps that led us to the development of SAMs-based magnetic tunnel nanojunctions.

Probing the electronic states of high-TMR off-stoichiometric Co2MnSi thin films by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

2014

The tunnel magnetoresistance ratio (TMR) of fully epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions with an off-stoichiometric Co${}_{2}$MnSi Heusler alloy has been shown to exhibit a systematic dependence on Mn content, reaching 1135% at 4.2 K for Co${}_{2}$Mn${}_{1.29}$Si. In this paper, we explain the behavior of the observed TMR ratio using ab initio calculations and hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES). For the Mn-deficient samples, we show that the the drop of the TMR is caused by Co antisite atoms, which impose extra states into the minority-spin band gap. On the other hand, Mn-excess composition shows nearly half-metallic behavior. This result can be intuitively understood since both Co…