• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.66-67
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• 2003

Bismuth (Bi) has been an attractive materials for studying spin dependent transport properties because it shows very large magnetoresistance (MR) resulting from its highly anisotropic Fermi surface, low carrier concentrations, long carrier mean free path 1 and small effective carrier mass m*[1-3]. With all the intriguing properties, difficulty in fabrication of high quality Bi thin films may have prevented extensive application of Bi in magnetic field sensing and spin-injection devices. Previous works found that the surface roughness and small grain size in 100-200 nm of Bi thin film made by evaporation and sputtering are major causes of low MR. Although relatively higher MR in electrodeposited Bi followed by annealing was reported, it still suffers from rough sulfate roughness which is so severs that it is hardly able to make a field sensing and spin-injection device using conventional photolithography process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.900-906
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• 2001

We prepared tunnel magnetoresistance(TMR) devices of Ta($50\AA$)/NiFe($50\AA$)/IrMn(150$\AA$)/CoFe($50\AA$)/Al ($13\AA$)-O/CoFe($40\AA$)/NiFe($400\AA$)/Ta(50$\AA$) structure which has 100$\times$100 $\mu\textrm{m}^2$ junction area on $2.5\Times2.5 cm^{2}$ $Si/SiO_2$ ($1000\AA$) substrates by a inductively coupled plasma(ICP) magnetron sputter. We fabricated the insulating layer using a ICP plasma oxidation method by varying oxidation time from 80 sec to 360 sec, and measured resistances and magnetoresistance(MR) ratios of TMR devices. We used a high resolution transmission electron microscope(HRTEM) to investigate microstructural evolution of insulating layer. The average resistance of devices increased from 16.38 $\Omega$ to 1018 $\Omega$ while MR ratio decreased from 30.31 %(25.18 %) to 15.01 %(14.97 %) as oxidation time increased from 80 sec to 360 sec. The values in brackets are calculated values considering geometry effect. By comparing cross-sectional TEM images of 220 sec and 360 sec-oxidation time, we found that insulating layer of 360 sec-oxidized was 30 % and 40% greater than that of 150 sec-oxidized in thickness and thickness variation, respectively. Therefore, we assumed that increase of thickness variation with oxidation time is major reason of MR decrease. The resistance of 80 sec-oxidized specimen was 160 k$\Omega$$\mu\textrm{m}^2$ which is appropriate for industrial needs of magnetic random access memory(MRAM) application.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.216-219
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• 2011

Perovskite manganites such as $RE_{1-x}A_xMnO_3$ (RE = rare earth, A = Ca, Sr, Ba) have been the subject of intense research in the last few years, ever since the discovery that these systems demonstrate colossal magnetoresistance (CMR). The CMR is usually explained with the double-exchange (DE) mechanism, and CMR materials have potential applications for magnetic switching, recording devices, and more. However, the intrinsic CMR effect is usually found under the conditions of a magnetic field of several Teslas and a narrow temperature range near the Curie temperature ($T_c$). This magnetic field and temperature range make practical applications impossible. Recently, another type of MR, called the low-field magnetoresistance(LFMR), has also been a research focus. This MR is typically found in polycrystalline half-metallic ferromagnets, and is associated with the spin-dependent charge transport across grain boundaries. Composites with compositions $La_{0.7}(Ca_{1-x}Sr_x)_{0.3}MnO_3)]_{0.99}/(BaTiO_3)_{0.01}$ $[(LCSMO)_{0.99}/(BTO)_{0.01}]$were prepared with different Sr doping levels x by a standard ceramic technique, and their electrical transport and magnetoresistance (MR) properties were investigated. The structure and morphology of the composites were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). BTO peaks could not be found in the XRD pattern because the amount of BTO in the composites was too small. As the content of x decreased, the crystal structure changed from orthorhombic to rhombohedral. This change can be explained by the fact that the crystal structure of pure LCMO is orthorhombic and the crystal structure of pure LSMO is rhombohedral. The SEM results indicate that LCSMO and BTO coexist in the composites and BTO mostly segregates at the grain boundaries of LCSMO, which are in accordance with the results of the magnetic measurements. The resistivity of all the composites was measured in the range of 90-400K at 0T, 0.5T magnetic field. The result indicates that the MR of the composites increases systematically as the Ca concentration increases, although the transition temperature $T_c$ shifts to a lower range.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.236-239
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• 2004

We studied the specular spin valve (SSV) having the spin filter layer (SFL) in contact with the ultrathin free layer composed of Ta3/NiFe2/IrMn7/CoFel/(NOLl)/CoFe2/Cu1.8/CoFe( $t_{F}$)/Cu( $t_{SF}$ )/(NOL2)/Ta3.5 (in nm) by the magnetron sputtering system. For this antiferromagnetic I $r_{22}$M $n_{78}$-pinned spin filter specular spin valve (SFSSV) films, an optimal magnetoresistance (MR) ratio of 11.9% was obtained when both the free layer thickness ( $t_{F}$) and the SFL thickness ( $t_{SF}$ ) were 1.5 nm, and the MR ratio higher than 11% was maintained even when the $t_{F}$ was reduced to 1.0 nm. It was due to increase of specular electron by the nano-oxide layer (NOL) and of current shunting through the SFL. Moreover, the interlayer coupling field ( $H_{int}$) between free layer and pinned layer could be explained by considering the RKKY and magnetostatic coupling. The coercivity of the free layer ( $H_{cf}$ ) was significantly reduced as compared to the traditional spin valve (TSV), and was remained as low as 4 Oe when the $t_{F}$ varied from 1 nm to 4 urn. It was found that the SFL made it possible to reduce the free layer thickness and enhance the MR ratio without degrading the soft magnetic property of the free layer.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.172-174
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• 2009

Nanolithography by atomic force microscope local oxidation was applied to the fabrication of planar-type Ni/Ni oxide/Ni junctions from 10 nm-thick Ni films. The junction characteristics were sensitive to the lithography conditions such as the bias voltage. Successful oxidation produced junctions of nonlinear current-voltage characteristics, implying the formation of oxide barriers. Magnetoresistance (MR) at low temperatures resembled that of spin valves.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.222-232
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• 1995

자기저항이란 외부 자기장에 의해 재료의 전기저항이 변화되는 현상을 일컫는다. Au와 같은 비자성도체 및 반도체 재료의 경우 외부에서 자기장이 가해지면 전도 전자가 Lorentz 힘을 받아 궤적이 변하므로 저항이 변화한다. 이러한 저항 변화 를 정상 자기저항(Ordinary Magnetoresistance, OMR)이라 하며 일반적으로 상당히 작은 저항의 변화를 나타낸다. 강자성도체 재료에서는 정상 자기저항 효과 외에도 부가적인 효과가 생긴다. 이는 스핀-궤도 결합에 기인한 효과로써 자기 저항은 강자성체의 자화용이축, 외부자계와 잔류간의 각도에 의존하며 이방성 자기저항(Anisotropic Magnetoresistance, AMR)이라 한다. AMR 비(%)는 일반적 으로 다음과 같이 정의된다. 즉 ${\Delta}{\rho}_{AMR}/{\rho}_{ave}=(\rho_{\|}-\rho_{T})/{\rho}_{ave}$로 여기서 $\rho_{\|}$는 자기장의 방향이 전류의 방향과 같을 때의 비저항 이고 $\rho_{T}$는 서로 수직일 때이며 ${\rho}_{ave}=(\rho_{\|}-\rho_{T})/3$이다. 기존의 MR 센서나 자기재생헤드(magnetic read head)에 사용되는 퍼머로이계 합금의 AMR 비는 상온에서 약 2% 정도의 저항변화를 보인다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.150-151
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• 2002

In recent years, semi-metallic Bismuth (Bi) has attracted significant attention due to very large magnetoresistance (MR) at room temperature originating from long carrier mean free path l and small effective carrier mass m＊[1, 2]. In particular, the MR behavior and long carrier mean free path l in Bi thin films can be exploited for spintronic devices, e.g. magnetic field sensors and spin-valve transistors. In present work, we present the magnetotransport properties of the electroplated and sputtered Bi thin films in the temperature range 4-300 K. (omitted)

• 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 Magnetics Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.123-128
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• 2017

The magnetic isotropy property from the magnetoresistance (MR) curve and magnetization (MH) loop for the PtMn based spin valve (SV) multilayer films fabricated with different the bottom structure after post-annealing treatment was investigated. The exchange biased coupling field ($H_{ex}$), coercivity ($H_c$), and MR ratio of Glass/Ta(10 nm)/CoFe(6 nm)/Cu(2.5 nm)/CoFe(3 nm)/Ta(4 nm) SV multilayer film without antiferromagnetic PtMn layer are 0 Oe, 25 Oe, and 3.3 %, respectively. MR curve for the Glass/Ta(10 nm)/CoFe(6 nm)/Cu(2.5 nm)/CoFe(3 nm)/PtMn(6 nm)/Ta(4 nm) SV multilayer film showed $H_{ex}=2Oe$, $H_c=316Oe$, and MR (%) = 4.4 % with one butterfly MR curve having by the effect of antiferromagnetic PtMn layer. MR curve for the dualtype Glass/Ta(10 nm)/CoFe(6 nm)/Cu(2.5 nm)/CoFe(3 nm)/PtMn(6 nm)/CoFe(3 nm)/Cu(2.5 nm)/CoFe(6 nm)/Ta(4 nm) SV multilayer film showed $H_c=37.5Oe$ and 386 Oe, MR = 3.5 % and 6.5 % with two butterfly MR curves and square-like hysteresis MH loops. The anisotropy property in CoFe spin valve-PtMn multilayer is neglected by the effects of a very small value of $H_{ex}$ and a very slightly shape magnetic anisotropy. This result is possible to explain the effect of magnetization configuration spin array of the bottom SV film and the top SV film of PtMn layer.

• 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.