Abstract
Ferromagnetic films of L10-ordered MnGa have shown promise not only in the applications in ultrahigh-density magnetic recording and spintronic memories, oscillators, and sensors, but also in controllable studies of novel electrical transport phenomena. However, the stability of MnGa in chemicals and oxygen plasma that are commonly used in the standard micro-/nano-fabrication process has unsettled. In this work, we report a systematic study on the chemical stability of the MnGa films in acids, acetone, ethanol, deionized water, tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH) and oxygen plasma. We find that MnGa is very stable in acetone and ethanol, while can be attacked substantially if soaked in TMAOH solution for sufficiently long time. Deionized water and acids (e.g., HCl, H3PO4 and H2SO4 solutions) attack MnGa violently and should be avoided whenever possible. In addition, oxygen plasma can passivate the MnGa surface by oxidizing the surface. These results provide important information for the fabrication and the integration of MnGa based spintronic devices.
Highlights
Ferromagnetic MnGa films with L10 long-range crystalline ordering show promise for both the spintronic technology and correlated electrical transport phenomena [1,2,3]
It has been established that MnGa films can have giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy [4,5], ultrahigh coercivity [4,5], low Gilbert damping constant [6], strong magneto-optical Kerr effect [7,8], and high Curie temperature [5]
We report a systematic study of the chemical stability of MnGa films in the representative chemical solutions that are in micro-/nano-fabrication processes and oxygen plasma
Summary
Ferromagnetic MnGa films with L10 long-range crystalline ordering show promise for both the spintronic technology and correlated electrical transport phenomena [1,2,3]. It has been established that MnGa films can have giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy [4,5], ultrahigh coercivity [4,5], low Gilbert damping constant [6], strong magneto-optical Kerr effect [7,8], and high Curie temperature [5]. We report a systematic study of the chemical stability of MnGa films in the representative chemical solutions that are in micro-/nano-fabrication processes and oxygen plasma. Our results indicate that the chemical stability must be carefully considered during the fabrications of the MnGa-based functional devices
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