Transmission electron microscopy study of the Fe(001) | MgO(001) interface for magnetic tunnel junctions

Chao Wang; Shouguo Wang; Amit Kohn; Roger C C Ward; Amanda K. Petford-Long

doi:10.1109/TMAG.2007.893694

Transmission electron microscopy study of the Fe(001) | MgO(001) interface for magnetic tunnel junctions

Chao Wang^*, Shouguo Wang, Amit Kohn, Roger C C Ward, Amanda K. Petford-Long

^*Corresponding author for this work

Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is employed to characterize ex situ the interface between the bottom Fe (001) electrode and MgO (001) barrier in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. High resolution TEM images are compared with multislice-based simulations of oxidized and sharp interfaces to conclude that at least the part of the interface is not oxidized. In addition, the spacing between the Fe and O layers at the interface is measured and found to be comparable with theoretical calculations in the literature of sharp interfaces. This result offers a methodology to characterize the interface structure of MTJs, which is important to determine the magneto-transport properties of the device.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2779-2781
Number of pages	3
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Magnetics
Volume	43
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2007.893694
State	Published - Jun 2007

Keywords

Electron microscopy
Epitaxial growth
Interface phenomena
Oxidation
Tunnel junction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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title = "Transmission electron microscopy study of the Fe(001) | MgO(001) interface for magnetic tunnel junctions",

abstract = "Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is employed to characterize ex situ the interface between the bottom Fe (001) electrode and MgO (001) barrier in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. High resolution TEM images are compared with multislice-based simulations of oxidized and sharp interfaces to conclude that at least the part of the interface is not oxidized. In addition, the spacing between the Fe and O layers at the interface is measured and found to be comparable with theoretical calculations in the literature of sharp interfaces. This result offers a methodology to characterize the interface structure of MTJs, which is important to determine the magneto-transport properties of the device.",

keywords = "Electron microscopy, Epitaxial growth, Interface phenomena, Oxidation, Tunnel junction",

author = "Chao Wang and Shouguo Wang and Amit Kohn and Ward, {Roger C C} and Petford-Long, {Amanda K.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for financial support and discussion with Dr. V. Lazarov, Dr. S.-Y. Choi, Dr. R. Schaeublin, Dr. J. Sloan, and Prof. A. I. Kirkland. A. K. Petford-Long acknowledges UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Copyright: Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2007",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1109/TMAG.2007.893694",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "43",

pages = "2779--2781",

journal = "IEEE Transactions on Magnetics",

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AU - Wang, Chao

AU - Wang, Shouguo

AU - Kohn, Amit

AU - Ward, Roger C C

AU - Petford-Long, Amanda K.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for financial support and discussion with Dr. V. Lazarov, Dr. S.-Y. Choi, Dr. R. Schaeublin, Dr. J. Sloan, and Prof. A. I. Kirkland. A. K. Petford-Long acknowledges UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Copyright: Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2007/6

Y1 - 2007/6

N2 - Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is employed to characterize ex situ the interface between the bottom Fe (001) electrode and MgO (001) barrier in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. High resolution TEM images are compared with multislice-based simulations of oxidized and sharp interfaces to conclude that at least the part of the interface is not oxidized. In addition, the spacing between the Fe and O layers at the interface is measured and found to be comparable with theoretical calculations in the literature of sharp interfaces. This result offers a methodology to characterize the interface structure of MTJs, which is important to determine the magneto-transport properties of the device.

AB - Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is employed to characterize ex situ the interface between the bottom Fe (001) electrode and MgO (001) barrier in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. High resolution TEM images are compared with multislice-based simulations of oxidized and sharp interfaces to conclude that at least the part of the interface is not oxidized. In addition, the spacing between the Fe and O layers at the interface is measured and found to be comparable with theoretical calculations in the literature of sharp interfaces. This result offers a methodology to characterize the interface structure of MTJs, which is important to determine the magneto-transport properties of the device.

KW - Electron microscopy

KW - Epitaxial growth

KW - Interface phenomena

KW - Oxidation

KW - Tunnel junction

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Transmission electron microscopy study of the Fe(001) | MgO(001) interface for magnetic tunnel junctions

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