• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.279-282
• /
• 2006

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), which consisted of amorphous ferromagnetic NiFeSiB free layers, were investigated. The NiFeSiB layers were used to substitute for the traditionally used CoFe and/or NiFe layers with the emphasis being given to obtaining an understanding of the effect of the amorphous free layer on the switching characteristics of the MTJs. $Ni_{16}Fe_{62}Si_{8}B_{14}$ has a lower saturation magnetization ($M_{s}:\;800\;emu/cm^{3}$) than $Co_{90}Fe_{10}$ and a higher anisotropy constant ($K_{u}:\;2700\;erg/cm^{3}$) than $Ni_{80}Fe_{20}$. The $Si/SiO_{2}/Ta$ 45/Ru 9.5/IrMn 10/CoFe $7/AlO_{x}/CoFeSiB\;(t)/Ru\;60\;(in\;nanometers)$structure was found to be beneficial for the switching characteristics of the MTJ, leading to a reduction in the coercivity ($H_{c}$) and an increase in the sensitivity resulted from its lower saturation magnetization and higher uniaxial anisotropy. Furthermore, by inserting a very thin CoFe layer at the tunnel barrier/NiFeSiB interface, the TMR ratio and switching squareness were improved more with the increase of NiFeSiB layer thickness up to 11 nm.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.216-220
• /
• 2010

Ni-Fe alloys have various applications such as thin film inductor, thin film transformer, magnetic head's shield case, etc. Magnetic properties of Ni-Fe thin films depend on the process parameters such as thickness, contents, deposition rate, substrates, etc. In this study, NiFe films with a thickness of about 150nm were deposited on Si(100) wafer and $SiO_2$/Si(100) substrate at room temperature by a DC magnetron co-sputtering using Fe and Ni targets. Their phase formation and magnetic properties as a function of annealing temperature were investigated with XRD, FE-SEM and VSM. The assputtered films have BCC structure. With increasing annealing temperature, NiFe thin film for $SiO_2$/Si(100) substrate transformed completely from BCC to FCC phase above $500^{\circ}C$, but some BCC phase remained above $500^{\circ}C$ on Si(100) wafer. For samples annealed at $450^{\circ}C$, squareness ratio of NiFe thin film shows peak value and its saturation magnetization is around 0.0118 emu, which means that the optimum annealing temperature of NiFe thin film seems to be $450^{\circ}C$. The saturation magnetization of films decreased rapidly above the annealing temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ due to phase transformation from BCC to FCC phase.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.78-84
• /
• 1999

$(Ni, Zn)Fe_2O_4$ powders were prepared through self-propagating high temperature synthesis reaction and the effects of initial zinc oxide powder size and oxygen pressure on the magnetic properties of the final combustion products were studied. The ferrite powders were combustion synthesized with iron, iron oxide, nickel oxide, and zinc oxide powders under various oxygen pressures of 0.5~10 atmosphere after blended in n-hexane solution for 5 minutes with a spex mill, followed by dried at 120 $^{\circ}C$ in vacuum for 24 hours. The maximum combustion temperature and propagating rate were about 1250 $^{\circ}C$ and 9.8 mm/sec under the tap density, which were decreased with decreasing ZnO size and oxygen pressure. The final product had porous microstructure with spinel peaks in X-ray spectra. As the ZnO particle size in the reactant powders and oxygen pressure during the combustion reaction increase, coercive force, maximum magnetization, residual magnetization, squareness ratio were changed from 1324 Oe, 43.88 emu/g, 1.27 emu/g, 0.00034 emu/gOe, 37.8$^{\circ}C$ to 11.83 Oe, 68.87 emu/g, 1.23 emu/g, 0.00280 emu/gOe, 43.9 $^{\circ}C$ and 7.99 Oe, 75.84 emu/g, 0.791 emu/g, 0.001937 emu/gOe, 53.8 $^{\circ}C$ respectively. Considering the apparent activation energy changes with oxygen pressure, the combustion reaction significantly depended on initial oxygen pressure and ZnO particle size.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.251-255
• /
• 1999

NiFe(60 $\AA$)/Co(0$\AA$$\leq$x$\AA$$\leq$15$\AA$)/Cu(60$\AA$)/Co(30$\AA$) spin valve thin films were prepared on 4$^{\circ}$ tilt-cut Si(111) substrates with a 50 $\AA$ thick Cu underlayer without applying any external magnetic field during the deposition, and the effects of inserted ultrathin Co layer on magnetic anisotropy and GMR properties of the NiFe(60 $\AA$)/Cu(60$\AA$)/Co(30$\AA$) spin valves were investigated. As the ultrathin Co layer was inserted into the NiFe/Cu interface of the spin valves, GMR ratio was increased from about 1.5% to 3.5%, and the easy axis of NiFe(60 $\AA$) layer was rotated by 90$^{\circ}$. Accordingly, it was aligned along the same direction with the easy axis of Co(30 $\AA$)layer. Therefore, squared R-H curves was obtained in the spin valves, which is favorable properties for the digital GMR devices such as MRAM. In order to investigate the change of magnetic anisotropy of NiFe layer of the spin valves in more details,XRD measurement was performed using NiFe(500 $\AA$) and NiFe(500 $\AA$)/Co(10 $\AA$) thin films on the same templates. Strong (220) NiFe peak was observed in both films regardless of the inserted Co layer, so it was thought that the variation of magnetic anisotropy of NiFe layer is from the interface effect, the change of interface from NiFe/Cu to NiFe/Co, rather than the volume effect such as the change of magnetocrystalline effect.