Spin Transfer Switching and Spin Polarization in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with Mgo and Alox Barriers

Preprint

8 October 2005

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.cond-mat/0510204

Abstract

We present spin transfer switching results for MgO based magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs)with large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of up to 150% and low intrinsic switching current density of 2-3 x 10 MA/cm2. The switching data are compared to those obtained on similar MTJ nanostructures with AlOx barrier. It is observed that the switching current density for MgO based MTJs is 3-4 times smaller than that for AlOx based MTJs, and that can be attributed to higher tunneling spin polarization (TSP) in MgO based MTJs. In addition, we report a qualitative study of TSP for a set of samples, ranging from 0.22 for AlOx to 0.46 for MgO based MTJs, and that shows the TSP (at finite bias) responsible for the current-driven magnetization switching is suppressed as compared to zero-bias tunneling spin polarization determined from TMR.

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All Related Versions

Version 1, 2005-10-08, ArXiv
Published version: Applied Physics Letters, 87 (23), 232502.

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