• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.170-181
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• 2006

Spin dependent tunneling has enormously activated the field of magnetism in general, and in particular spin transport studies, in the past ten years. Thousands of articles related to the subject have appeared with many fundamental results. Importantly, there is great interest in their potential for application. There was another surge of activity in this field since the past five years - created by the theoretical prediction of a large tunnel magnetoresistance that arises due to band symmetry matched coherent tunneling in epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions with (001) MgO barrier and experimentally well demonstrated. This further development in the field has boosted the excitement in both fundamental science as well as the possibility of application in such as magnetic random access memory, ultra sensitive read heads, biosensors and spin torque diodes. This review is a brief coverage of the field highlighting the literature that deals with magnetic tunnel junctions having epitaxial MgO tunnel barriers.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.185-189
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• 2010

Spin polarized tunneling through a hybrid tunnel barrier of a Spin filter (SF) based on a EuO ferro-magnetic semiconductor and an organic semiconductor (OSC) (rubrene in this case) was investigated. For quasi-magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structures, such as Co/rubrene/EuO/Al, we observed a strong spin filtering effect of the EuO layer exhibiting I-V curves with high spin polarization (P) of up to 99% measured at 4 K. However, a magnetoresistance (MR) value of 9% was obtained at 4.2 K. The low MR compared to the high P could be attributed to spin scattering caused by structural defects at the interface between the EuO and rubrene, due to nonstoichiometry in the EuO.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.5-32
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• 2000

MRAM, High performance MRAM using MTJS demostrated, fully integrated MTJ MRAM with CMOS circuits, write time ~2.3 nsec; read time ~3 nsec, Thermally stable up to ~350 C, Switching field distibution controlled by size & shape. Magnetic Tunnel Junction Properties, Magnetoresistance: ~50% at room temperature, enhanced by thermal treatment, Negative and Positive MR by interface modification, Spin Polarization: >55% at 0.25K, Insensitive ot FM composition, Resistance $\times$ Area product, ranging from ~20 to 10$^{9}$ $\Omega$(${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$)$^{2}$, Spin valve transistor, Tunnel injected spin polarization for "hot" electrons, Decrease of MTJMR at high bias originates from anode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.96-96
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• 2010

We report the proper resistance-area products in the single crystalline bcc CoFe/MgO tunnel contact on nondegenerate n-Ge desirable for efficient spin injection and detection at room temperature. The electric properties of the crystalline CoFe(5 nm)/MgO(1.5,2.0,2.5 nm)/n-Ge(001) tunnel contacts have been investigated by I-V-T and C-V measurements. Interestingly, the tunnel contact with the 2-nm MgO exhibits the ohmic behavior with low resistance-area products, satisfying the theoretical conditions required for significant spin injection and detection. This result is ascribed to the presence of MgO layer between CoFe and n-Ge, enhancing the Schottky pinning parameter as well as shifting the charge neutrality level.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.152-153
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• 2002

The report on large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) at room temperature in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ), composed of two ferromagnetic electrodes separated by a thin insulating barrier, has ignite the intensive research both from scientific and technological points of view. A simple model proposed by Juliere has explained the observed TMR surprisingly well, where the TMR is expressed in terms of the spin polarization P of the ferromagnetic electrodes. (omitted)

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.8-11
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• 2006

Recently half-metallic full-Heusler alloy films have attracted significant interests for spintronics devices. As these alloys have been known to have a high spin polarization, very large TMR ratio is expected in magnetic tunnel junctions. Among these alloys, $Co_2MnSi$ full-Heusler alloy with a high spin polarization and a high Curie temperature is considered a good candidate as an electrode material for spintronic devices. In this study, the magnetic and structural properties of $Co_2MnSi$ Heusler alloy films were investigated. TMR characteristics of magnetic tunnel junctions with a $Co_2MnSi/SiO_2/CoFe$ structure were studied. A maximum MR ratio of 39% with $SiO_2$ substrates and 27% with MgO(100) substrates were obtained. The lower MR ratio than expectation is considered due to off-stoichiometry and atomic disorder of $Co_2MnSi$ electrode together with oxidation of the electrode layer.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.99-104
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• 2004

We have studied to understand the barrier and interface qualities and structural changes through measuring temperature dependent spin-polarization as functions of plasma oxidation time and annealing time. Magnetic tunnel junctions consisting of SiO2$_2$/Ta 5/CoFe 17/IrMn 7.5/CoFe 5/Al 1.6-Ox/CoFe 5/Ta 5 (numbers in nm) were deposited and annealed when necessary. A 30 s,40 s oxidized sample showed the lowest spin-polarization values. It is presumed that tunneling electrons were depolarized and scattered by residual paramagnetic Al due to under-oxidation. On the contrary, a 60s, 70 s oxidized sample might have experienced over-oxidation, where partially oxidized magnetic dead layer was formed on top of the bottom CoFe electrode. The magnetic dead layer is known to increase the probability of spin-flip scattering. Therefore it showed a higher temperature dependence than that of the optimum sample (50 s oxidation). temperature dependence of 450 K annealed samples was improved when the as-deposited one compared. But the sample underwent 475 K and 500 K annealing exhibits inferior temperature dependence of spin-polarization, indicating that the over-annealed sample became microstucturally degraded.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.60-60
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• 2011

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR), tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), and magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) are currently active research areas in spintronics. The high magnetoresistance and the high spin polarization (P) of electrons in the ferromagnetic electrodes of tunnel junction or intermediate layers are required. Magnetite, Fe3O4, is predicted to possess as half-metallic nature, P ~ 100% spin polarization, and has a high Curie temperature (TC~850 K). Experiments demonstrated that the P~($80{\pm}5$)%, ~($60{\pm}5$)%, and ~40-55% for epitaxial (111), (110) and (001)-oriented Fe3O4 thin films, respectively. Epitaxial Fe3O4 films may enable us to investigate the effects of half metals on the spin transport without grain-boundary scattering.In addition, it has been reported that the Verwey transition (TV, a first order metal-insulator transition) of 120 K in bulk Fe3O4 is strongly affected by many parameters such as stoichiometry and stress, etc. Here we report that the growth modes, magnetism and transport properties of Fe3O4 thin films were strongly dependent on the oxygen pressure during film growth. The average roughness decreases from 1.021 to 0.263 nm for the oxygen pressure increase from $2.3{\times}10-7$ to $8.2{\times}10^{-6}$ Torr, respectively. The 120 K Verwey transition in Fe3O4 was disappeared for the sample grown under high oxygen pressure.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.196-201
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• 2001

The dependence of CoFe interfacial layer thickness and plasma oxidation condition on tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in Ta/NiFe/FeMn/NiFe/Al$_2$O$_3$/NiFe/Ta tunnel junctions was investigated. As the CoFe layer thickness increases, TMR ratio rapidly increases to 13.7 % and decreases with further increase of the CoFe layer thickness. The increase of TMR with the CoFe thickness up to 25 was thought to be due mails to the high spin-polarization of CoFe. The maximum MR of 15.3% was obtained in the Si(100)/Ta(50 )/NiFe(60 )/FeMn(250 )/NiFe(70 )/Al$_2$O$_3$/NiFe(150 )/Ta(50 ) magnetic tunnel junction with a 16 Al oxidized for 40 sec using a Ar/O$_2$ (1:4) mixture gas.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.154-158
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• 2008

Magnetite($Fe_3O_4$) is currently one of key materials for applications in magnetic storage and many bioinspired applications because bulk $Fe_3O_4$ has a high Curie temperature($Tc={\sim}850K$) and nearly full spin polarization at room temperature(RT). In this work, $Fe_3O_4$ nanoparticles with different sizes of 12 to 15 nm were prepared in a well-controlled manner by a nonhydrolytic synthetic method. Here, we report the significant intergrain magneto-resistance(MR) of ${\sim}2%$ at RT in $Fe_3O_4$ nanoparticle pellets. The tunneling conductance was also investigated based on the Brinkman model, as well. Our results show clearly that the surface or interfacial property of the particles plays a crucial role in the MR effect.