• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.189-195
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• 2001

We prepared TMR junctions of NiFe(170 )/CoFe(48 )/Al(13 )-O/CoFe(500 )/Ta(50 ) structure on 2.5$\times$2.5 $\textrm{cm}^2$ area Si/SiO$_2$ substrates in order to investigate the uniformity of magnetoresistance(MR) value using a ICP magnetron sputter. Each layer was deposited by the ICP magnetron sputter and tunnel barrier was formed by the plasma oxidation method. We measured MR ratio and resistance of TMR devices with four-terminal probe system by applying external magnetic field. Although we used ICP sputter which is known as superior to make uniform films, the standard variation of MR ratio was 2.72. The variation was not dependent on the TMR devices location of a substrate. We found that MR ratio and spin-flip field (H's) increased as the resistance increased, which may be caused by local interface irregularity of the insulating layer. The variation of resistance value was 64.19 and MR ratio was 2.72, respectively. Our results imply that to improve the insulating layer fabrication process including annealing process to lessen interface modulation in order to mass produce the TMR devices.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2005

Magnetic tunneling transistor (MTT) device using the amorphous n-type Si semiconductor film for base and collector consisting of the [CoFe/NiFe](free layer) and Si(top layer) multilayers was used to study the spin-dependent hot electron magnetocurrent (MC) and tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) at room temperature. A large MC of 40.2 % was observed at the emitter-base bias voltage ( $V_{EB}$ ) of 0.62 V. The increasing emitter hot current and transfer ratio ( $I_{C}$/ $I_{E}$) as $V_{EB}$ are mainly due to a rapid increase of the number of conduction band states in the Si collector. However, above the $V_{EB}$ of 0.62 V, the rapid decrease of MC was observed in amorphous Si-based MTT because of hot electron spin-dependent elastic scattering across CoFe/Si interfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.231-235
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• 2005

We studied the microstructural evolution of ZrTM-Al (TM=Nb and Ti) alloy films, MR and electrical properties of the MTJ with $ZrTM-AlO_x$ barrier as a function of Zr/TM ratio. We observed that the ternary-oxide barrier reduced the TMR ratio due mainly to the structural defects such as the surface roughness. The change in TMR ratio and $V_h$ with Zr/TM ratio exactly corresponds to the systematic changes in the microstructural variation. Although the MTJ with ternary oxide reduced the TMR and the electrical stabilities, the junction resistances decreased as the Ti and Nb concentration increased due to the band-gap reduction caused by the formation of extra bands

• 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.9 no.6
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• pp.306-311
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• 1999

$La_{2/3}Sr_{1/3}MnO_3(LSMO)/YSZ/SiO_2/Si(100)$ polycrystalline thin films were fabricated be chelated sol-gel method The effect of YSZ buffer layer at low field (120 Oe) spin-polarized tunneling magnetotransport (TMR) properties of LSMO thin film was studied at room temperature. Single perovskite LSMO thin films was obtained. The maximum TMR ratio was increased from 0.2 to 0.42 % by the insertion of YSZ buffer. YSZ as diffusion barrier was attributed to the fine microstructure of LSMO thin films and the reduction of dead layer between LSMO and $SiO_2/Si(100)$ interfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.245-250
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• 1999

The effect of substrate and oxidization time on $substrate /Py/Al_2O_3/Co\;(Py=Ni_{81}Fe_{19})$ tunnel junction was studied. Samples were prepared without breaking vacuum by changing shadow masks in-situ. The resistance of tunnel junctions increased, but measured MR decreased with oxidization time. Negative MR observed for samples of tunnel resistivity lower than 0.17 M$\Omega$ $({\mu}m)^2$. MR resistivity decreased with the change of substrates in the order of thermally oxidized Si(111), Si(100), Coring Glass 2948, Corning Glass 7059. Sign change and the variation of MR was explained with non uniform current effect.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 1998

We have investigated tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) properties of Fe/$Al_2O_3$/Co magnetic trilayer junctions sputtered on single-crystal Si (001) substrates. $Al_2O_3$ layers with thicknesses of 50~200 $\AA$ were deposited directly on the bottom ferromagnetic layer by a reactive rf sputtering. For comparsion, we prepared Pt/$Al_2O_3$/Pt tunnel junctions whose current-voltage (I-V) characteristics measured at 300 K indicated that reactively sputtered $Al_2O_3$ is a particularly good material for thin insulating barriers and allows us to form pinhole-free tunnel barriers. The magnetic tunnel junctions exhibit changes of tunnel resistance of about 0.1% at 300 K with an applied magnetic field and it was found that most junctions with Co as a top electrode have rather good I-V and TMR characteristics compared to those with Fe as a electrode. These results were discussed in relation to interfacial on the basis of those for Pt/$Al_2O_3$/Pt.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.458-464
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• 2017

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) based ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) is proposed which provides non-volatility. A unit cell of the TCAM has two MTJ's and 4.875 transistors, which allows the realization of TCAM in a small area. The equivalent resistance of parallel connected multiple unit cells is compared with the equivalent resistance of parallel connected multiple reference resistance, which provides the averaging effect of the variations of device characteristics. This averaging effect renders the proposed TCAM to be variation-tolerant. Using 65-nm CMOS model parameters, the operation of the proposed TCAM has been evaluated including the Monte-Carlo simulated variations of the device characteristics, the supply voltage variation, and the temperature variation. With the tunneling magnetoresistance ratio (TMR) of 1.5 and all the variations being included, the error probability of the search operation is found to be smaller than 0.033-%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.370.1-370.1
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• 2014

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR), tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), and magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) are currently active areas of research. Magnetite, Fe3O4, is predicted to possess as half-metallic nature, ~100% spin polarization (P), and has a high Curie temperature (TC~850 K). On the other hand, Spinel ferrite CoFe2O4 has been widely studies for various applications such as magnetorestrictive sensors, microwave devices, biomolecular drug delivery, and electronic devices, due to its large magnetocrystalline anisotropy, chemical stability, and unique nonlinear spin-wave properties. Here we have investigated the magneto-transport properties of epitaxial CoxFe3-xO4 thin films. The epitaxial CoxFe3-xO4 (x=0; 0.4; 0.6; 1) thin films were successfully grown on MgO (100) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The quality of the films during growth was monitored by reflection high electron energy diffraction (RHEED). From temperature dependent resistivity measurement, we observed that the Werwey transition (1st order metal-insulator transition) temperature increased with increasing x and the resistivity of film also increased with the increasing x up to $1.6{\Omega}-cm$ for x=1. The magnetoresistance (MR) was measured with magnetic field applied perpendicular to film. A negative transverse MR was disappeared with x=0.6 and 1. Anomalous Hall data will be discussed.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.72-79
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• 2002

Local M-H loops have been measured on the free layer of a tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) junction using the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) system, with an optical beam size of about 2 $\mu$m diameter. Tunnel junctions were deposited using the DC magnetron sputtering method in a chamber with a base pressure of 3$\times$10$^{-9}$ Torr. The relatively irregular variations of coercive force H$_c$(∼17.5 Oe) and unidirectional anisotropy field H$_{ua}$(∼7.5 Oe) in the as-deposited sample are revealed. After $200{^{\circ}C}$ annealing, He decreases to 15 Oe but H$_{ua}$ increases to 20 Oe with smooth local variations. Two-dimensional plots of H$_c$ and H$_{ua}$ show the symmetric saddle shapes with their axes aligned with the pinned layer, irrespective of the annealing field angle. This is thought to be caused by geometric effects during deposition, together with a minor annealing effect. In addition, the variation of root mean square (RMS) surface roughness reveals it to be symmetric with respect to the center of the pinned-layer axis, with the roughness of 2.5 $\AA$ near the edge and 5.8 $\AA$ at the junction center. Comparison of surface roughness with the variation of H$_{ua}$ suggests that the H$_{ua}$ variation of the free layer is well described by dipole interactions related to surface roughness. As a whole, the reversal magnetization is not uniform over the entire junction area and the macroscopic properties are governed by the average sum of local distributions.