Spin tunneling in junctions with disordered ferromagnets

Abstract

We provide compelling evidence to establish that, contrary to one's elementary guess, the tunneling spin polarization (TSP) of amorphous CoFeB is larger than that of highly textured fcc CoFeB. First principles atomic and electronic structure calculations reveal striking agreement between the measured TSP and the predicted s-electron spin polarization. Given the disordered structure of the ternary alloy, not only do these results strongly endorse our communal understanding of tunneling through AlOx, but they also portray the key concepts that demand primary consideration in such complex systems.

To be published in Physical Review Letters. 5 double-column pages with 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Current-driven magnetization switching in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions
• Observation of band structure and density of states effects in Co-based magnetic tunnel junctions

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Correlation between magnetism and spin-dependent transport in CoFeB alloys
• Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and magnetization process in CoFeB/Pd multilayer films
• Insights into ultrafast demagnetization in pseudo-gap half metals
• Study of magnetism in MgO/FeCoB/MgO trilayers using x-ray standing wave techniques
• Spin polarized tunneling in MgO-based tunnel junctions with superconducting electrodes