Abstract
We fabricated synthetic ferrimagnetic layers (SyFL) based on NiFe/Ru/NiFe or NiFe/V/NiFe for the free electrode of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) and characterized their spin flopping, coercive and saturation fields. NiFe/Ru/NiFe SyFL exhibited a coercive field of 10 Oe, which would produce a coercive field of less than 50 Oe when incorporated into sub-micrometer sized MTJ. In comparison, NiFe/V/NiFe SyFL showed extremely low exchange coupling; only when the thickness of the V layer was -0.8 nm, appreciable level of exchange coupling was observed. The coercive field of the NiFe/V/NiFe SyFL, however, did not have a large dependence on the thickness of V and remained at ∼2 Oe. The coercive field of the V-SyFL is expected to maintain below 10 Oe even after patterned into a tunnel junction. Both NiFe/Ru/NiFe and NiFe/V/NiFe SyFLs were stable up to 525 K without showing any gross changes in microstructure and magnetic properties when thermally annealed.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
