Byong-Guk Park

Large spin Hall magnetoresistance and its correlation to the spin-orbit torque in W/CoFeB/MgO structures

The phenomena based on spin-orbit interaction in heavy metal/ferromagnet/oxide structures have been investigated extensively due to their applicability to the manipulation of the magnetization direction via the in-plane current. This implies the existence of an inverse effect, in which the conductivity in such structures should depend on the magnetization orientation. In this work, we report a systematic study of the magnetoresistance (MR) of W/CoFeB/MgO structures and its correlation with the current-induced torque to the magnetization. We observe that the MR is independent of the angle between the magnetization and current direction but is determined by the relative magnetization orientation with respect to the spin direction accumulated by the spin Hall effect, for which the symmetry is identical to that of so-called the spin Hall magnetoresistance. The MR of ~1% in W/CoFeB/MgO samples is considerably larger than those in other structures of Ta/CoFeB/MgO or Pt/Co/AlOx, which indicates a larger spin Hall angle of W. Moreover, the similar W thickness dependence of the MR and the current-induced magnetization switching efficiency demonstrates that MR in a non-magnet/ferromagnet structure can be utilized to understand other closely correlated spin-orbit coupling effects such as the inverse spin Hall effect or the spin-orbit spin transfer torques.

Interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in CoFeB/MgO structure with various underlayers

Interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in CoFeB/MgO structures was investigated and found to be critically relied on underlayer material and annealing temperature. With Ta or Hf underlayer, clear PMA is observed in as-deposited samples while no PMA was shown in those with Pt or Pd. This may be attributed to smaller saturation magnetization of the films with Ta or Hf underlayer, which makes the PMA of CoFeB/MgO interface dominates over demagnetization field. On the contrary, samples with Pt or Pd demonstrate PMA only after annealing, which might be due to the CoPt (or CoPd) alloy formation that enhances PMA.

Integrated arrays of air-dielectric graphene transistors as transparent active-matrix pressure sensors for wide pressure ranges

Integrated electronic circuitries with pressure sensors have been extensively researched as a key component for emerging electronics applications such as electronic skins and health-monitoring devices. Although existing pressure sensors display high sensitivities, they can only be used for specific purposes due to the narrow range of detectable pressure (under tens of kPa) and the difficulty of forming highly integrated arrays. However, it is essential to develop tactile pressure sensors with a wide pressure range in order to use them for diverse application areas including medical diagnosis, robotics or automotive electronics. Here we report an unconventional approach for fabricating fully integrated active-matrix arrays of pressure-sensitive graphene transistors with air-dielectric layers simply formed by folding two opposing panels. Furthermore, this realizes a wide tactile pressure sensing range from 250 Pa to ∼3 MPa. Additionally, fabrication of pressure sensor arrays and transparent pressure sensors are demonstrated, suggesting their substantial promise as next-generation electronics.

Failure of exchange-biased low resistance magnetic tunneling junctions upon thermal treatment

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) were used to characterize low resistance (100–1000 Ω μm2) tunneling junctions consisting of Ta/NiFe/Cu/NiFe/IrMn/CoFe/Al (6.6 and 7.7 A)–oxide/CoFe/NiFe/Ta multilayers after annealing at temperatures ranging from 250 to 500 °C. The Al (7.7 A) junction showed continual improvement in the magnetoresistance (MR) ratio when annealed up to 300 °C while the MR ratio of the Al (6.6 A) junction dropped sharply above 250 °C in spite of the only 1 A difference in the deposited thickness of aluminum metal prior to plasma oxidation. TEM measurement provided evidence that the annealing process improves, in general, structural uniformity in the insulation layer, but thermal treatment can also degrade junction performance at a relatively low temperature due to current leakage through the electrodes. Current leakage can be problematic for a junction whose insulation barrier may be too thin (less than ∼10 A). Both RBS and TEM analyses ...

Magnetic tunnel junctions with Hf oxide and modified Hf oxide tunnel barriers

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ’s) with Hf oxide and modified Hf oxide barriers were fabricated by ozone oxidation. The tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio in Hf oxide junction was 13% at room temperature and 21% at 77 K. In order to understand the low TMR ratio in MTJ’s with Hf oxides compared to those with Al oxides, tunnel barriers were modified by inserting a thin Al oxide layer of 0.3 nm at the interfaces between ferromagnetic electrodes and Hf oxide insulating layers. As the Al layer of 0.3 nm was inserted at top and bottom interfaces, the TMR ratio was restored to the value of the junctions with Al oxides. This implies that the polarization of CoFe contacted with Al oxide is larger than that of CoFe contacted with Hf oxide and the low TMR ratio in MTJ’s with Hf oxides may be attributed to the reduction of spin polarization of the CoFe electrodes due to CoFe/Hf oxide interface interaction.

Dependence of tunneling magnetoresistance on CoFe interfacial layer thickness in NiFe/Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//NiFe tunnel junctions

Magnetic tunnel junctions of Ta/Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19//Fe/sub 50/Mn/sub 50//Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19//Co/sub 50/Fe/sub 50//Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//Co/sub 50/Fe/sub 50//Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19/ were fabricated by a magnetron sputtering system. We have studied the change of tunneling magnetoresistance (MR) ratio and junction resistance as a function of CoFe interfacial layer thickness. The MR ratio rapidly increased and slowly decreased as the CoFe layer thickness increased. The junction resistance increased with the introduction of CoFe layer. The increase is due to more uniform Al layer formation on a CoFe layer than a NiFe layer.

Alleviation of fermi-level pinning effect at metal/germanium interface by the insertion of graphene layers

In this paper, we report the alleviation of the Fermi-level pinning on metal/n-germanium (Ge) contact by the insertion of multiple layers of single-layer graphene (SLG) at the metal/n-Ge interface. A decrease in the Schottky barrier height with an increase in the number of inserted SLG layers was observed, which supports the contention that Fermi-level pinning at metal/n-Ge contact originates from the metal-induced gap states at the metal/n-Ge interface. The modulation of Schottky barrier height by varying the number of inserted SLG layers (m) can bring about the use of Ge as the next-generation complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor material. Furthermore, the inserted SLG layers can be used as the tunnel barrier for spin injection into Ge substrate for spin-based transistors.

Stacking order dependence of inverse spin Hall effect and anomalous Hall effect in spin pumping experiments

The dependence of the measured DC voltage on the non-magnetic material (NM) in NM/CoFeB and CoFeB/NM bilayers is studied under ferromagnetic resonance conditions in a TE011 resonant cavity. The directional change of the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) voltage VISHE for the stacking order of the bilayer can separate the pure VISHE and the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) voltage VAHE utilizing the method of addition and subtraction. The Ta and Ti NMs show a broad deviation of the spin Hall angle θISH, which originates from the AHE in accordance with the high resistivity of NMs. However, the Pt and Pd NMs show that the kinds of NMs with low resistivity are consistent with the previously reported θISH values. Therefore, the characteristics that NM should simultaneously satisfy to obtain a reasonable VISHE value in bilayer systems are large θISH and low resistivity.

CuO-based sintering aids for low temperature sintering of BaFe12O19 ceramics

Abstract This paper describes the effect of addition of 2 wt% of CuO, 30 mol% BaO–70 mol% CuO and BaCuO2 liquid phase sintering aids on the densification, microstructure and magnetic properties of BaFe12O19 ceramics. Addition of the sintering aids enabled reduction of the sintering temperature from 1250 °C to 1100 °C. The sintering aids caused abnormal grain growth in ceramics sintered at 1100 °C, with CuO having the strongest effect. All samples sintered at 1250 °C showed abnormal grain growth. Addition of CuO and BaO–CuO caused the grain size distribution to shift to larger values compared to the sample without sintering aid. The effect of the sintering aids on grain growth behavior is explained using the interface-reaction control theory of grain growth. The increase in grain size caused a reduction in coercivity of the samples with sintering aid addition, particularly in the samples sintered at 1100 °C.

Observation of transverse spin Nernst magnetoresistance induced by thermal spin current in ferromagnet/non-magnet bilayers

Electric generation of spin current via spin Hall effect is of great interest as it allows an efficient manipulation of magnetization in spintronic devices. Theoretically, pure spin current can be also created by a temperature gradient, which is known as spin Nernst effect. Here, we report spin Nernst effect-induced transverse magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/non-magnetic heavy metal bilayers. We observe that the magnitude of transverse magnetoresistance in the bilayers is significantly modified by heavy metal and its thickness. This strong dependence of transverse magnetoresistance on heavy metal evidences the generation of thermally induced pure spin current in heavy metal. Our analysis shows that spin Nernst angles of W and Pt have the opposite sign to their spin Hall angles. Moreover, our estimate implies that the magnitude of spin Nernst angle would be comparable to that of spin Hall angle, suggesting an efficient generation of spin current by the spin Nernst effect.Pure spin current generated thermally in nonmagnetic materials known as spin Nernst effect has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here, the authors report the observation of spin Nernst effect by studying the thermally-induced transverse magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/non-magnet heavy metal bilayers