AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Thursday Sessions
       Session MI+MS+NS-ThM

Paper MI+MS+NS-ThM1
Interface Stability between Amorphous Ferromagnetic Layer and Oxide Barriers in Tunneling Magnetoresistive Films at Elevated Temperatures

Thursday, November 3, 2005, 8:20 am, Room 204

Session: Advanced Magnetic Storage and Manufacturing Processes
Presenter: X. Peng, Seagate Technology
Authors: X. Peng, Seagate Technology
D. Kvitek, Seagate Technology
A. Morone, Seagate Technology
E. Granstrom, Seagate Technology
S. Xue, Seagate Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
Interface stability and microstructure between amorphous ferromagnetic (FM) layers Fe@sub 56@Co@sub 24@B@sub 20@ (atomic percent), and oxide barrier layers (AlO) as deposited by physical vapor deposition, in both as-deposited and annealed states, have been studied using magnetic measurement by looper, elemental depth profiling by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and atomic level microstructure by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) respectively. AlO is amorphous on both amorphous Fe@sub 56@Co@sub 24@B@sub 20@ and crystalline FM layers. Substantial Fe diffusion towards the AlO layer and Al towards FM layer are clearly observed for Fe@sub 56@Co@sub 24@B@sub 20@/AlO system for annealing beyond 360°C, and will likely cause the MTJ devices made from this system to not functioning.