Spin-transport in magnetic tunnel junctions with a zero-moment half-metallic electrode

The Big Data revolution has spurred the social need for transmitting ever-larger amounts of data and increasing data transmission speed. Mobile data speeds operating in the low GHz band will not be sufficient in the years to come, and society and researchers, therefore, look towards THz frequencies for next-generation wireless communication. To be successful, cheap and compact THz-transmitters/receivers have to be created. From the field of spintronics, spin-transfer-torque nano-oscillators (STNOs) may offer a solution for this demand, provided that their output frequency can be increased. In such devices, a spin-polarized current induces magnetization dynamics at frequencies of the same order of magnitude as their resonance frequencies. The operating frequencies for current STNOs based on typical transition metal-based ferromagnets and their derivatives lie in the GHz range, as a consequence of their low magnetic anisotropy and high magnetization. On the other hand, ferrimagnetic materials with ultra-high effective anisotropy fields are very promising, as they exhibit magnetic resonances of several hundred GHz, with antiferromagnetic modes in the THz. By integrating such materials into STNOs, sub-THz and even THz wireless emission may be achieved. In order to obtain high output power, the multilayer stacks have to exhibit high magnetoresistive effects: giant magnetoresistance (GMR) or tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR). High spin polarization is a necessary condition for strong magnetoresistive and spin-transfer effects. Therefore half-metals, which are metallic for one spin direction and semiconducting for the other, appear as the ideal choice. The focus of the work presented here is high anisotropy compensated ferrimagnetic half-metals (CFHMs) – a class of materials predicted in 1995 by van Leuken and de Groot. CFHMs behave like antiferromagnets (AFMs) with respect to external magnetic fields, since the magnetic moments of the two sublattices compensate, while simultaneously exhibiting half-metallic electron transport behavior. Many attempts had been made to fabricate such materials. Currently, MnGa-based alloys, where high anisotropy is coupled with low magnetization, attract intense attention and some have already been integrated into magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Complete magnetic compensation in such alloys is, however, difficult to obtain. This was first realized in 2014 in Mn2RuxGa (MRG), which is a material that combines ideal properties like low magnetization, high magnetic anisotropy, and large spin polarization.

Here, the first demonstration of successful integration of MRG in the perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction stack is presented. The magnitude of TMR obtained in the stacks where the MgO barrier was used, although high, can still be improved. The main reason for TMR ratios being lower than what theory predicts is the presence of impurities in the tunnel barrier. In order to enhance the device's performance, different insertion layers between MgO and MRG were incorporated. These layers are diffusion barriers which stop Mn diffusion into the tunnel barrier. The highest TMR to-date (40 % at 10 K) was achieved in MgO-based stacks where a layer of Al 0.6 nm is incorporated. Within this thesis it was demonstrated that the TMR is insensitive to the compensation of the ferromagnetic MRG electrode, thereby, highlighting the fundamental difference between an antiferromagnet and a compensated half-metallic ferrimagnet. Furthermore, another tunnel barrier – Al2O3 (which is expected to be less sensitive to contamination than MgO) – has been integrated into MRG-based MTJ stacks. The current work provides a detailed study of the annealing, the bias voltage applied across the tunnel barrier and the external temperature influence on the performance of MRG-based MTJs. The stacks were analyzed not only via magnetotransport measurements, but also from the point of view of their structural and magnetic properties. This work contributes to the better understanding of spin transport in MRG-based MTJs and shows that these devices exhibit sufficient tunneling magnetoresistance ratios to observe current-induced magnetization dynamics, and, hence, establish a cornerstone of future spintronics devices.

Part of this work was carried out under the EU Project TRANSPIRE - DLV-737038.