Observation of boron diffusion in an annealed Ta/CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junction with standing-wave hard x-ray photoemission
Abstract
The CoFeB/MgO system shows promise as a magnetic tunnel junction with perpendicular magnetization and low critical current densities for spin-torque driven magnetization switching. The distribution of B after annealing is believed to be critical to performance. We have studied the distribution of B in a Ta/Co0.2Fe0.6B0.2/MgO sample annealed at 300 °C for 1 h with standing-wave hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SW-HXPS). Comparing experimental rocking curve data to x-ray optical calculations indicates diffusion of 19.5% of the B uniformly into the MgO and of 23.5% into a thin TaB interface layer. SW-HXPS is effective for probing depth distributions in such spintronic structures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 12, 2012
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4766351
Entities
People
- A. A. Greer
- A. M. Kaiser
- A. X. Gray
- C. Bordel
- C. M. Schneider
- C. S. Fadley
- F. Hellman
- F. Matsukura
- G. Palsson
- Galen Conti
- H. Ohno
- J. B. Kortright
- K. Kobayashi
- N. Maejima
- S. Ikeda
- S. Ueda
- S.-h. Yang
- Shun Kanai
- Yohachi Yamashita
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Nara Institute of Science and Technology
- Stanford University
- Tohoku University
- United States Department of Energy
- University of California
- University of Rouen-Normandy