Spin torque, tunnel-current spin polarization and magnetoresistance in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

G. D. Fuchs; J. A. Katine; S. I. Kiselev; D. Mauri; K. S. Wooley; D. C. Ralph; R. A. Buhrman

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.186603

Spin torque, tunnel-current spin polarization and magnetoresistance in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2009-11-11 v1 Materials Science

Authors: G. D. Fuchs , J. A. Katine , S. I. Kiselev , D. Mauri , K. S. Wooley , D. C. Ralph , R. A. Buhrman

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Abstract

We examine the spin torque (ST) response of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with ultra-thin MgO tunnel barrier layers to investigate the relationship between the spin-transfer torque and the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) under finite bias. We find that the spin torque per unit current exerted on the free layer decreases by less than 10% over a bias range where the TMR decreases by over 40%. We examine the implications of this result for various spin-polarized tunneling models and find that it is consistent with magnetic-state-dependent effective tunnel decay lengths.

Keywords

spin torque tunnel magnetoresistance MgO tunnel barrier magnetic tunnel junction spin polarization

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0510786,
  title  = {Spin torque, tunnel-current spin polarization and magnetoresistance in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions},
  author = {G. D. Fuchs and J. A. Katine and S. I. Kiselev and D. Mauri and K. S. Wooley and D. C. Ralph and R. A. Buhrman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0510786},
  year   = {2009}
}

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4 pages, 3 figures

Spin torque, tunnel-current spin polarization and magnetoresistance in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

Abstract

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