IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Thursday Sessions
       Session MI+NS-ThM

Paper MI+NS-ThM9
Imaging Magnetization in MRAM Elements with Soft X-Ray Microscopy

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 11:00 am, Room 110

Session: Magnetic Imaging and Spectroscopy
Presenter: J.B. Kortright, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Authors: J.B. Kortright, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
G. Meigs, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
G.P. Denbeaux, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
J.M. Slaughter, Motorola
R. Whig, Motorola
S.-I. Han, Motorola
Correspondent: Click to Email
The magnetic elements used to store information in MRAM devices will have dimensions of less than 1 micron laterally and roughly 5 nm in thickness. Such small dimensions make it difficult to directly observe field-dependent magnetization structure in individual elements, and possible interactions between elements, by conventional magnetic microscopy techniques. We are using scanning and imaging soft x-ray microscopes based on zone-plate lenses (with resolution approaching 30 nm) and resonant magnetic circular dichroism contrast to image magnetization structure during reversal in arrays of lithographically patterned bits on SiNx membrane substrates. Remnant magnetization structure and its evolution through reversal are clearly resolved, as is the dependence of this structure on element size, shape and cyclic reversal. Following a brief review of techniques, microscopy results relevant to MRAM applications and comparisons with micromagnetic theory will be presented. Work at LBNL was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098. Work at Motorola Labs was partially funded by DARPA.