Recent Developments of Spintronics Device Technologies Based on Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with Magnesium Oxide Tunnel Barrier
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- Yuasa Shinji
- National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Spintronics Research Center
Bibliographic Information
- Other Title
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- 酸化マグネシウムMTJ素子を中心としたスピントロニクス技術の進展
- サンカ マグネシウム MTJ ソシ オ チュウシン ト シタ スピントロニクス ギジュツ ノ シンテン
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Abstract
A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) consisting of a thin insulating layer (a tunnel barrier) sandwiched between two ferromagnetic electrodes exhibits the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect due to spin-dependent electron tunneling. Since the discovery of room-temperature TMR in the mid-1990s, MTJs with an amorphous aluminum oxide (Al-O) tunnel barrier have been studied extensively. Such MTJs exhibit a magnetoresistance (MR) ratio of several tens of percent at room temperature and have been applied to magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) and the read heads of hard disk drives. MTJs with MR ratios substantially higher than 100%, however, are desired for next-generation spintronic devices. In 2001, first-principle theories predicted that the MR ratios of epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe MTJs with a crystalline MgO(001) barrier would be over 1000% due to the coherent tunneling of specific Bloch states. In 2004, MR ratios of about 200% were obtained for MgO-based MTJs. MTJs with a CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB structure were developed for practical application and found to have MR ratios of above 200% and other practical properties. This article reviews the physics of magnetoresistance in MTJs and the application of MTJs to various spintronic devices such as magnetic sensors, spin-transfer-torque MRAM with perpendicular magnetization, and novel microwave devices.
Journal
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- IEEJ Transactions on Electronics, Information and Systems
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IEEJ Transactions on Electronics, Information and Systems 133 (3), 471-478, 2013
The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan
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Keywords
Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1390001204607937792
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- NII Article ID
- 10031155334
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- NII Book ID
- AN10065950
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- ISSN
- 13488155
- 03854221
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- NDL BIB ID
- 024347745
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- Text Lang
- ja
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- Data Source
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- JaLC
- NDL
- Crossref
- CiNii Articles
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- Abstract License Flag
- Disallowed