Apparent spin polarization decay in Cu-dusted Co/Al2O3/Co tunnel junctions

被引:101
作者
LeClair, P
Swagten, HJM
Kohlhepp, JT
van de Veerdonk, RJM
de Jonge, WJM
机构
[1] Eindhoven Univ Technol, Dept Appl Phys, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
[2] Eindhoven Univ Technol, COBRA, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
关键词
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2933
中图分类号
O4 [物理学];
学科分类号
0702 ;
摘要
Co/Al2O3/Co magnetic tunnel junctions with an interfacial Cu layer have been investigated with in situ growth characterization and ex situ magnetotransport measurements. Cu interlayers grown on Co give an approximately exponential decay of the tunneling magnetoresistance with xi approximate to 0.26 nm while those grown on Al2O3 have a decay length of 0.70 nm. The difference in decay lengths can be explained by different growth morphologies, and in this way clarifies a present disagreement in the literature. For monolayer coverage of Cu, we show that the tunneling spin polarization is suppressed by at least a factor of 2 compared to Co and beyond approximate to 5 ML it becomes vanishingly small.
引用
收藏
页码:2933 / 2936
页数:4
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