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Highly Spin-Polarized Tunneling in Fully Epitaxial Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with a Co-Based Full-Heusler Alloy Thin Film and a MgO Barrier

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Advances in Solid State Physics

Part of the book series: Advances in Solid State Physics ((ASSP,volume 47))

Abstract

Co-based full-Heusler alloy (Co2YZ) thin films are highly preferable ferromagnetic materials in spintronic devices because of the half-metallic ferromagnetic nature at room temperature (RT) theoretically predicted for some of these alloys. We developed fully epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) that have a Co2 YZ thin film of Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al (CCFA), Co2MnSi (CMS), or Co2MnGe (CMG) as a lower electrode, and a MgO tunnel barrier, and have demonstrated a relatively high tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of 109% at RT (317% at 4.2K) for CCFA/MgO/Co50Fe50 MTJs and a TMR ratio of 90% at RT (192% at 4.2K) for CMS/MgO/Co50Fe50 MTJs. A high tunneling spin polarization of 0.88 at 4.2K was estimated for epitaxial CCFA films with the B2 structure. The demonstrated high TMR ratios confirmed that fully epitaxial MTJs with a MgO tunnel barrier are promising as a key device structure for fully utilizing the high spin polarization of Co-based full-Heusler alloy thin films.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Electronics for Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, N14, W9, Kita-ku, 060-0814, Sapporo, Japan

    Masafumi Yamamoto, Takao Marukame, Takayuki Ishikawa, Ken-ichi Matsuda & Tetsuya Uemura

Authors
  1. Masafumi Yamamoto
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  2. Takao Marukame
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  3. Takayuki Ishikawa
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  4. Ken-ichi Matsuda
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  5. Tetsuya Uemura
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Nanostrukturen Institut für Festkörperphysik, Universität Hannover, Appelstr. 2, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Rolf Haug

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Yamamoto, M., Marukame, T., Ishikawa, T., Matsuda, Ki., Uemura, T. (2008). Highly Spin-Polarized Tunneling in Fully Epitaxial Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with a Co-Based Full-Heusler Alloy Thin Film and a MgO Barrier. In: Haug, R. (eds) Advances in Solid State Physics. Advances in Solid State Physics, vol 47. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74325-5_9

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