Apparent spin polarization decay in Cu-dusted Co/Al2O3/Co tunnel junctions

Co/Al2O3/Co magnetic tunnel junctions with an interfacial Cu layer have been investigated with in situ growth characterization and ex situ magnetotransport measurements. Cu interlayers grown on Co give an approximately exponential decay of the tunneling magnetoresistance with xi approximately 0.26 n...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 84; no. 13; p. 2933
Main Authors LeClair, P, Swagten, HJ, Kohlhepp, JT, van De Veerdonk RJ, de Jonge WJ
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 27.03.2000
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:Co/Al2O3/Co magnetic tunnel junctions with an interfacial Cu layer have been investigated with in situ growth characterization and ex situ magnetotransport measurements. Cu interlayers grown on Co give an approximately exponential decay of the tunneling magnetoresistance with xi approximately 0.26 nm while those grown on Al2O3 have a decay length of 0.70 nm. The difference in decay lengths can be explained by different growth morphologies, and in this way clarifies a present disagreement in the literature. For monolayer coverage of Cu, we show that the tunneling spin polarization is suppressed by at least a factor of 2 compared to Co and beyond approximately 5 ML it becomes vanishingly small.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2933