Incidence of in situ annealing on the nanoscale topographical/electrical properties of the tunnel barrier in sputtered epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe multilayers - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics Année : 2010

Incidence of in situ annealing on the nanoscale topographical/electrical properties of the tunnel barrier in sputtered epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe multilayers

D J Kim
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J Arabski
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V da Costa
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G Schmerber
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M Bowen
S Boukari
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E Beaurepaire
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Résumé

Technological improvements in the magnetotranport performance of Fe/MgO/Fe stacks require nanoscale control over the topographical and electrical properties of the ultrathin MgO barrier. We have statistically investigated the incidence of in-situ annealing of the lower Fe layer on the nanoscale topographical/electrical properties of Fe/MgO bilayers and the structural and magnetic properties of Fe/MgO/Fe/Co multilayers prepared by sputtering. This annealing step improves the crystal quality of both the lower Fe and upper Fe/Co layers, leading to an enhanced saturated magnetic moment. Finally, this annealing step substantially mitigates the presence of nanohills on the lower Fe layer and improves the uniformity of the height and/or the thickness of MgO tunnel barrier. Our results pave the way for studies of nanoscale transport on micron-sized devices through a better understanding of, and control over, nanoscale hotspots in the tunnel barrier.

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Dates et versions

hal-00569613 , version 1 (25-02-2011)

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D J Kim, J Arabski, V da Costa, G Schmerber, M Bowen, et al.. Incidence of in situ annealing on the nanoscale topographical/electrical properties of the tunnel barrier in sputtered epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe multilayers. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2010, 43 (21), pp.215003. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/43/21/215003⟩. ⟨hal-00569613⟩

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