Improvement of Switching Field in Magnetic Tunneling Junction Using Ru/Ta Capping Layer

Author

Yen, Cheng-Tyng ; Chen, Wei-Chuan ; Wang, Yung-Hung ; Yang, Shan-Yi ; Shen, Kuei-Hung ; Kao, Ming-Jer ; Tsai, Ming-Jinn

Author_Institution

Electron. Res. & Service Organ., Ind. Technol. Res. Inst., Hsinchu

Volume

42

Issue

10

fYear

2006

Firstpage

2748

Lastpage

2750

Abstract

A Ru/Ta capping layer for magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) was used to replace the routinely used Ta capping layer. The MTJs with CoFeB used as the free layer were shaped to ellipses of 0.36 times 0.60 mum. The magnetoresistive (MR) ratio of Ru/Ta capped MTJs was found to be 47.3%, slightly lower than the value of 52.8% of Ta capped MTJs. In the meantime, the switching field of Ru/Ta capped MTJs with 30Aring of Ru was found to be 37.7 Oe, greatly reduced from 63 Oe of Ta capped MTJs. The switching field variation of Ru/Ta capped MTJs was 6 Oe, also better than the value of 11 Oe of Ta capped MTJs. The different switching behaviors of Ru/Ta and Ta capped MTJs were discussed from the aspects of oxygen diffusion, intermixing, and magnetostriction

Keywords

magnetic storage; magnetic switching; magnetic tunnelling; magnetoresistive devices; random-access storage; capping layer; magnetic switching; magnetic tunneling junction; magnetoresistive random access memory; switching field; Amorphous materials; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic films; Magnetic switching; Magnetic tunneling; Magnetostriction; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Random access memory; Tunneling magnetoresistance; Cappying layer; magnetic switching; magnetic tunneling junction; magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2006.878897

Filename

1704426