| Original Articles |
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Electron Holography of Barrier Structures in Co/ZrAlOx/Co Magnetic Tunnel Junctions |
| ZHANG Zhe1;ZHU Tao2;SHEN Feng1;SHENG Wen-Ting3;WANG Wei-Gang3;XIAO John Q3;ZHANG Ze1,4 |
| 1Beijing Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080
2State Key Laboratory for Magnetism, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080
3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
4Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100022 |
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| Cite this article: |
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ZHANG Zhe, ZHU Tao, SHEN Feng et al 2005 Chin. Phys. Lett. 22 1732-1735 |
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Abstract We investigate the potential profiles and elemental distribution of barriers in Co/ZrAlOx/Co magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) using electron holography (EH) and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The MTJ barriers are introduced by oxidizing a bilayer consisting with a uniform 0.45-nm Al layer and a wedge-shaped Zr layer (0-2nm). From the scanning transmission electron microscopy, AlOx and ZrOx layers are mixed together, indicating that compact AlOx layer cannot be formed in such a bilayer structure of barriers. The EH results reveal that there are no sharp interfaces between the barrier and magnetic electrodes, which may be responsible for a smaller tunnelling magnetoresistance compared with the MTJs of Co/AlOx/Co.
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| Keywords:
61.14.Nm
68.37.Lp
75.70.Cn
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Published: 01 July 2005
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| PACS: |
61.14.Nm
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68.37.Lp
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(Transmission electron microscopy (TEM))
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75.70.Cn
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(Magnetic properties of interfaces (multilayers, superlattices, heterostructures))
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