Fully epitaxial Fe(110)/MgO(111)/Fe(110) magnetic tunnel junctions: Growth, transport, and spin filtering properties

Fully epitaxial Fe(110)/MgO(111)/Fe(110) magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have been tested with respect to symmetry-enforced spin filtering. The Fe(110) electrodes exhibit Σ 1 ↑ and Σ 1 ↓ spin states, both crossing the Fermi level, but with a group velocity about 50% smaller for the minority states...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2008-08, Vol.93 (8), p.083512-083512-3
Main Authors: Hauch, J. O., Fonin, M., Fraune, M., Turban, P., Guerrero, R., Aliev, F. G., Mayer, J., Rüdiger, U., Güntherodt, G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Fully epitaxial Fe(110)/MgO(111)/Fe(110) magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have been tested with respect to symmetry-enforced spin filtering. The Fe(110) electrodes exhibit Σ 1 ↑ and Σ 1 ↓ spin states, both crossing the Fermi level, but with a group velocity about 50% smaller for the minority states compared to the majority ones. These epitaxial but symmetry-mismatched MTJs yield tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) values of 54% at 1.5 K and 28% at room temperature. The TMR value and the estimated tunneling spin polarization are consistent with a partial spin filtering due to the Σ 1 ↑ states partially compensated by the Σ 1 ↓ states.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.2976546