Magnetic tunnel junctions with single-crystal electrodes: A crystal anisotropy of tunnel magneto-resistance
- 1 November 2000
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Europhysics Letters
- Vol. 52 (3) , 344-350
- https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2000-00445-5
Abstract
A strong dependence of tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) on the crystal orientation of ferromagnetic electrodes was confirmed experimentally. We studied the TMR of Fe/Al2O3/Fe50Co50 tunnel junctions with single-crystal Fe electrodes of different crystal orientations and found that the TMR ratio increased from 13% to 42% at 2K (8% to 26% at room temperature) when the crystal orientation was changed from (100) to (211). Such a TMR anisotropy could be explained in terms of the anisotropic spin polarization of Fe bulk and/or interface electronic states. The importance of the "momentum-filtering" effect of the tunnel barrier was also discussed.Keywords
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