Theory of tunneling magnetoresistance for epitaxial systems

Author

Butler, W.H. ; Zhang, X.-G. ; Vutukuri, S. ; Chshiev, M. ; Schulthess, T.C.

Author_Institution

Center for Mater. for Inf. Technol. (MINT), Alabama Univ., Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Volume

41

Issue

10

fYear

2005

Firstpage

2645

Lastpage

2648

Abstract

The tunneling current for electrons tunneling between crystalline ferromagnetic electrodes through an epitaxial crystalline barrier can be calculated from first principles. These calculations show that the wave function symmetry can be exploited to achieve very high tunneling magnetoresistance. For the Fe(100)|MgO(100) |Fe(100) system, the calculated conductance is much higher and its decrease with MgO thickness is much slower than has been estimated using a simple free electron-barrier model.

Keywords

crystal symmetry; electrodes; ferromagnetic materials; magnesium alloys; magnetic epitaxial layers; tunnelling magnetoresistance; wave functions; MgO; crystalline ferromagnetic electrodes; electron tunneling; epitaxial crystalline barrier; epitaxial systems; free electron-barrier model; magnesium oxide; tunneling magnetoresistance; wave function symmetry; Crystallization; Electric resistance; Electrodes; Electrons; Insulation; Iron; Semiconductor process modeling; Tunneling magnetoresistance; USA Councils; Wave functions; Co; Fe; MgO; cobalt; iron; magnesium oxide; magnetoresistance; symmetry; tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2005.854763

Filename

1519075