RESUMEN
It was found that in double MgO based perpendicular magnetic tunneling junction spin-valves ex-situ annealed at 400 °C, the tunneling magnetoresistance ratio was extremely sensitive to the material and thickness of the nanoscale spacer: it peaked at a specific thickness (0.40~0.53 nm), and the TMR ratio for W spacers (~134%) was higher than that for Ta spacers (~98%). This dependency on the spacer material and thickness was associated with the (100) body-centered-cubic crystallinity of the MgO layers: the strain enhanced diffusion length in the MgO layers of W atoms (~1.40 nm) was much shorter than that of Ta atoms (~2.85 nm) and the shorter diffusion length led to the MgO layers having better (100) body-centered-cubic crystallinity.
RESUMEN
For the double MgO based perpendicular magnetic tunneling junction (p-MTJ) spin-valves with a top Co2Fe6B2 free layer ex situ annealed at 400 °C, the tunneling-magnetoresistance ratio (TMR) strongly depended on the platinum (Pt) seed layer thickness (t Pt): it peaked (â¼134%) at a specific t Pt (3.3 nm). The TMR ratio was initially and slightly increased from 113%-134% by the enhancement of the magnetic moment of the Co2Fe6B2 pinned layer when t Pt increased from 2.0-3.3 nm, and then rapidly decreased from 134%-38.6% by the degrading face-centered-cubic crystallinity of the MgO tunneling barrier when t Pt increased from 3.3-14.3 nm.
RESUMEN
For the perpendicular-magnetic-tunneling-junction (p-MTJ) spin valve with a nanoscale-thick bottom Co2Fe6B2 free layer ex situ annealed at 400 °C, which has been used as a common p-MTJ structure, the Pt atoms of the Pt buffer layer diffused into the MgO tunneling barrier. This transformed the MgO tunneling barrier from a body-centered cubic (b.c.c) crystallized layer into a mixture of b.c.c, face-centered cubic, and amorphous layers and rapidly decreased the tunneling-magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio. The p-MTJ spin valve with a nanoscale-thick top Co2Fe6B2 free layer could prevent the Pt atoms diffusing into the MgO tunneling barrier during ex situ annealing at 400 °C because of non-necessity of a Pt buffer layer, demonstrating the TMR ratio of ~143 %.
RESUMEN
By fabricating CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB-based perpendicular-magnetic tunnel junction (p-MTJ) spin-valves stacked with a [Co/Pd] n -SyAF layer based on a TiN bottom electrode on a 12 inch Si wafer (001) substrate, we investigated how the bridging layers of Ta, Ti, and Pt and their thickness variation affected the tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) ratio of Co2Fe6B2 pinned-layer behavior in magnetic-tunnel-junctions. TMR ratios for Ta, Ti, and Pt bridging layers were observed to be 64.1, 70.2, and 29.5%, respectively. It was confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) that this difference resulted from CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB MTJ layers with Ta and Ti bridging layers being textured well with a bcc (100) structure, indicating that Ta and Ti bridging layers bridged SyAF fcc (111) and MTJ bcc (100). On the other hand, the MTJ layer with Pt bridging layer was incorrectly textured, indicating that a Pt bridging layer is unsuitable to bridge SyAF fcc (111) and MTJ bcc (100) due to Pt being diffused into the CoFeB pinned-layer. In addition, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) behavior of the CoFeB pinned-layer was found to depend strongly on a bridging layer thickness; higher TMRs of Ta and Ti were observed at the optimal bridging layers' thickness, which enable the realization of PMAs of the pinned-layer and ferro-coupling of the pinned-layer with the lower-SyAF layer. Among the three bridging materials (Ta, Ti, and Pt), we observed that Ti showed the highest TMR ratio and widest thickness range for a high TMR ratio, indicating that a higher TMR ratio is needed to obtain the best deposition process margin.
RESUMEN
The TMR ratio of Co2Fe6B2/MgO-based p-MTJ spin valves stacked with a [Co/Pd]n-SyAF layer decreased rapidly when the ex situ magnetic annealing temperature (Tex) was increased from 275 to 325 °C, and this decrease was associated with degradation of the Co2Fe6B2 pinned layer rather than the Co2Fe6B2 free layer. At a Tex above 325 °C the amorphous Co2Fe6B2 pinned layer was transformed into a face-centered-cubic (fcc) crystalline layer textured from [Co/Pd]n-SyAF, abruptly reducing the Δ1 coherence tunneling of perpendicular-spin-torque electrons between the (100) MgO tunneling barrier and the fcc Co2Fe6B2 pinned layer.
RESUMEN
The tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of a cobalt-iron-boron (CoFeB)-based perpendicular-magnetic-tunnel-junction (p-MTJ) spin valve is extremely sensitive to both nanoscale Co2Fe6B2 free- and pinned-layer thicknesses. The TMR ratio peaks at a Co2Fe6B2 free-layer thickness of 1.05 nm, while it peaks at a Co2Fe6B2 pinned-layer thickness of 1.59 nm, achieving 104%. The amount of tantalum diffused into the MgO tunneling barrier (originated from a tantalum seed) decreases with increasing Co2Fe6B2 free-layer thickness, while the amount of palladium diffused from a [Co/Pd]n SyAF layer decreases with increasing Co2Fe6B2 pinned-layer thickness, determining the crystallinity of the MgO tunneling barrier and the TMR ratio. In addition, the TMR ratio tended to decrease when the Co2Fe6B2 free layer and the Co2Fe6B2 pinned layer switched characteristics from interface-perpendicular anisotropic to in-plane anisotropic.
RESUMEN
The etch characteristics of magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) related materials such as CoFeB, MgO, FePt, Ru, and W as hard mask have been investigated as functions of rf pulse biasing, substrate heating, and CH4/N2O gas combination in an inductively coupled plasma system. When CH4/N2O gas ratio was varied, at CH4/N2O gas ratio of 2:1, not only the highest etch rates but also the highest etch selectivity over W could be obtained. By increasing the substrate temperature, the linear increase of both the etch rates of MTJ materials and the etch selectivity over W could be obtained. The use of the rf pulse biasing improved the etch selectivity of the MTJ materials over hard mask such as W further. The surface roughness and residual thickness remaining on the etched surface of the CoFeB were also decreased by using rf pulse biasing and with the decrease of rf duty percentage. The improvement of etch characteristics by substrate heating and rf pulse biasing was possibly related to the formation of more stable and volatile etch compounds and the removal of chemically reacted compounds more easily on the etched CoFeB surface. Highly selective etching of MTJ materials over the hard mask could be obtained by using the rf pulse biasing of 30% of duty ratio and by increasing the substrate temperature to 200 degrees C in the CH4/N2O (2:1) plasmas.
RESUMEN
The magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)-related materials such as CoFeB, CoPt, MgO, and Ru, and W were etched using CH3OH in a pulse-biased inductively coupled plasma system and the effect of bias pulsing (100% 30% duty percentage) on the etch characteristics of the MTJ-related materials was investigated at the substrate temperature of 200 degrees C. The etch selectivity of MTJ-related materials over W was improved by using pulse-biasing possibly due to the formation of more stable and volatile etch products during the pulse-off time and the removal of the compounds more easily on the etched CoFeB surface during the pulse-on time. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy also showed that the use of lower duty percentage decreases the residue thickness remaining on the etched MTJ materials indirectly indicated the higher volatility of the etch products by the bias pulsing. The etching of nano-patterned CoFeB masked with W also showed more anisotropic etch profile by pulse-biasing probably due to the increased the etch selectivity of CoFeB over W and the decreased redeposition of etch products on the sidewall of the CoFeB features. The most anisotropic CoFeB etch profiles could be observed by using CH3OH gas in the pulse biasing of 30% duty ratio.