Advanced electron microscopy of novel ferromagnetic materials and ferromagnet/oxide interfaces in magnetic tunnel junctions

We have studied novel ferromagnetic (FM) materials and FM electrode/tunnel barrier interfaces in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) by advanced electron microscopy including scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). MTJs are one of the prototypical spintronic devices, with applications in magnetic random access memory, sensors and read heads. The performance of MTJs depends on several factors, including the FM electrodes and the FM/tunnel barrier interfaces. Therefore, to realize the high performance of MTJs, we first need high quality ferromagnetic electrodes with high spin polarization. High-quality Fe3O4 and Fe4N electrodes with theoretically predicted -100% spin polarization were fabricated by various methods and investigated by HRSTEM and STEM EELS. The Fe3O4 and Fe4N thin films have low defect density and good crystallinity, but when integrated as electrodes in a MTJ, problems emerged. In a Fe4N/AlOx/Fe MTJ, the magnetoresistance was negative, but relatively small, due to a defective Fe 3O4 reaction layer formed at the Fe4N/tunnel barrier interface revealed by HRSTEM and EELS. The interfacial reaction layer was thin and discontinuous which made direct imaging difficult. Therefore, STEM EELS was used to map out the reaction layer. A Fe3O4 reaction layer was also found in a nominally symmetric CoFe/AlOx/CoFe MTJs after annealing, which also exhibited inverse TMR and a non-symmetric bias dependence. We also investigated the MTJs with the Heusler alloy Co2MnSi as one or both electrode and crystalline MgO as the tunnel barrier, which exhibit quite high TMR due to coherent tunneling. We showed that the Co2MnSi/MgO interface in these junctions is dominated by a configuration of a pure Mn plane bonded across the interface to O. This was the first observation of that interface termination. HRSTEM images also show that the fraction of MnMn/O interface termination increases with increasing Mn concentration in the CMS electrode. With the help of electron microscopy, we have found methods to increase the TMR of MTJs with half metallic materials as electrodes including Fe3O4 and Co2MnSi. We believe that the potential of half metallic materials will be realized with the development of new materials and new design of FM/tunnel barrier interfaces.