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Effect of interfacial nitrogen defects on tunnel magnetoresistance in an Fe/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junction.
- Source :
- Journal of Applied Physics; 12/7/2022, Vol. 132 Issue 21, p1-6, 6p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- We investigated the effect of interfacial nitrogen (N) defects on tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) in Fe/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) which are the basic building block of magnetoresistive random access memory. The N atoms are predicted to originate from the SiN covering for antioxidation. It was found from first-principles quantum-transport calculations that the N defects significantly worsen the TMR. This is particularly evident in the MTJ models with an additional N atom at the MgO/Fe interface, because a conduction channel appears in the antiparallel magnetization configuration due to the N defects. The TMR is directly related to the read error rate of data and the scaling of the memory cell. Therefore, the prevention of nitrogen contamination during the manufacturing processes is a prerequisite for maintaining high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00218979
- Volume :
- 132
- Issue :
- 21
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 160682357
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0126570