Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T01:57:35.484Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interlayer Exchange Coupling in Single Crystal Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Studied by Electron Holography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Etienne Snoeck ,
Coriolan Tiusan ,
Fanny Greullet ,
Gerard Benassayag ,
Pierre Baules  and
Alain Schuhl
Etienne Snoeck
Affiliation:
[email protected], CNRS, CEMES, 29 rue J. Marvig, Toulouse, 31400, France, +33(0)562 257 891, +33(0)562 257 999
Coriolan Tiusan
Affiliation:
[email protected], CNRS - Université de Nancy, Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, Bd. des Aiguillettes, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, 54506, France
Fanny Greullet
Affiliation:
[email protected], CNRS - Université de Nancy, Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, Bd. des Aiguillettes, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, 54506, France
Gerard Benassayag
Affiliation:
[email protected], CNRS, CEMES, 29 rue J. Marvig, Toulouse, 31400, France
Pierre Baules
Affiliation:
[email protected], CNRS, CEMES, 29 rue J. Marvig, Toulouse, 31400, France
Alain Schuhl
Affiliation:
[email protected], CEA - CNRS, SPINTEC, Av. des Martyrs, Grenoble, 38054, France
Get access

Abstract

Ion irradiation has been performed on epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions exhibiting antiferromagnetic exchange coupling. Electron holography and VSM experiments show that the amplitude and the nature of the coupling are modified by the irradiation. We demonstrate that the roughness induced by the irradiation at the Fe/MgO interfaces destroys the AF coupling. The biquadratic coupling experimentally observed in the irradiated samples is the result of the competition between local antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic coupling. For the largest irradiation doses, the net coupling becomes ferromagnetic.

Keywords

transmission electron microscopy (TEM)ion-implantationmagnetic properties
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1026: Symposium C – Quantitative Electron Microscopy for Materials Science , 2007 , 1026-C22-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Faure-Vincent, J., Tiusan, C., Bellouard, C., Popova, E., Hehn, M., Montaigne, F. and Schuhl, A., Phys. Rev. Lett., 89, 107206 (2002).10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.107206Google Scholar
2. Slonczewski, J.C., Phys. Rev. B 39, 6995 (1989)Google Scholar
3. Tiusan, C., Sicot, M., Faure-Vincent, J., Hehn, M., Bellouard, C., Montaigne, F., Andrieu, S., Schuhl, A., J. Phys. Condens. Matter 18, 941–956 (2006).10.1088/0953-8984/18/3/012Google Scholar
4. Faye, M., Laanab, L., Beauvillain, J., Claverie, A., Vieu, C. and Benassayag, G. (1993). Two-dimensional damage distributions induced by localized ion implantations, Mater. Res. Soc, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.Google Scholar
5. Möller, W. and Eckstein, W., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B2, 814 (1984).10.1016/0168-583X(84)90321-5Google Scholar
6. Popova, E., Faure-Vincent, J., Tiusan, C., Bellouard, C., Fischer, H., Snoeck, E., Hehn, M., Montaigne, F., Costa, V. Da, Alnot, M., Andrieu, S. and Schuhl, A., Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 1035 (2002).10.1063/1.1498153Google Scholar
7. Snoeck, E., Hartel, P., Mueller, M., Haider, M., Tiemeijer, P.C., Proceeding of the IMC16 congress, Sapporo (2006).Google Scholar
8. Midgley, P. A.. Micron 32, 167 (2001).10.1016/S0968-4328(99)00105-5Google Scholar
9. Rau, W. D., Schwander, P., Baumann, F. H., Höppner, W., and Ourmazd, A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2614 (1999).10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.2614Google Scholar
10. Twitchett, A. C., Dunin-Borkowski, R. E., and Midgley, P. A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 238302 (2002)10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.238302Google Scholar
11. Tonomura, A., Adv. Phys. 41, 59 (1992)10.1080/00018739200101473Google Scholar
12. Dunin, R. E.-Borkowski, McCartney, M. R., Kardynal, B., Parkin, S. S. P., and Smith, D. J., J. Microscopy 200, 187 (2000).10.1046/j.1365-2818.2000.00753.xGoogle Scholar
13. Reimer, L., Transmission Electron Microscopy (Springer - Verlag, 1997).10.1007/978-3-662-14824-2Google Scholar
14. Dunin-Borkowski, R. E., McCartney, M. R., Smith, D. J. and Parkin, S. S. P., Ultramicroscopy 74, 61 (1998).Google Scholar