Tunnel magnetoresistance in epitaxial (100)-oriented FeCo/LiF/FeCo magnetic tunnel junctions

We fabricated fullyepitaxialmagnetic tunnel junctions with LiF tunnel barriers on Si (100) substrates with high-vacuumelectron-beam deposition. By changing the thickness of the LiF barrier, tunnelmagnetoresistance of up to 90% at 77  K (17% at room temperature) was observed attLiF = 2.8 nm. Themagnetoresistance ratio as a function of the LiF barrier thickness shows a similar trend with that inmagnetic tunnel junctions usingepitaxial MgO barriers. There is a rapid decrease of themagnetoresistance ratio with increasing bias-voltage and temperature, indicating the presence of imperfections in the LiF barriers.

Source: Applied Physics Letters - November 9, 2016 Category: Physics Authors: Qian Xue, Yihang Yang, Zhiwei Gao, Fen Liu, Qiang Li, Shandong Li and Guo-Xing Miao Source Type: research