National Institute for Materials Science

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Tdk Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Seiji Mitani

Kazuhiro Hono

Hiroaki Sukegawa

Tadakatsu Ohkubo

Takao Furubayashi

Yukiko Takahashi

Shinya Kasai

Katsuyuki Nakada

Shinto Ichikawa

Koichiro Inomata

Jun Liu

Masamitsu Hayashi

Thomas Scheike

Hwachol Lee

Kouichiro Inomata

Jungwoo Koo

Jason Paul Hadorn

Zhenchao Wen

Junichi Ito

Tadaomi Daibou

Naoharu Shimomura

Shigeki Takahashi

Yuuzo Kamiguchi

Yushi Kato

Yoshiaki Sonobe

Kwangseok Kim

Tomoya Nakatani

Masafumi Shirai

Masaya Kodzuka

Yoshio Miura

Ikhtiar

Shigeyuki Hirayama

Po-Han Cheng

Jaivardhan Sinha

Tomohiko Niizeki

Kazutaka Abe

Shingo Muramoto

Rajanikanth Ammanabrolu

Varaprasad Bollapragada

Srinivasan Ananthakrishnan

Sinha Jaivardhan

Mohamed Belmoubarik

Pohan Cheng

A magnetoresistive effect element includes: a first ferromagnetic layer; a second ferromagnetic layer; and a non-magnetic layer provided between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer, wherein the non-magnetic layer includes a first layer and a second layer, and wherein a lattice constant &#x3b1; of the first layer and a lattice constant &#x3b2; of the second layer satisfy a relationship of &#x3b2;&#x2212;0.04&#xd7;&#x3b1;&#x2264;2&#xd7;&#x3b1;&#x2264;&#x3b2;+0.04&#xd7;&#x3b1;.

Magnetoresistive effect element containing two non-magnetic layers with different crystal structures

The present invention provides a perpendicularly magnetized film structure exhibiting high interface-induced magnetic anisotropy by utilizing a combination of an alloy comprising Fe as a main component and MgAlOas a basic configuration.

Precursor structure of perpendicularly magnetized film, perpendicularly magnetized film structure and method for manufacturing the same, perpendicular magnetization-type magnetic tunnel junction film in which said structure is used and method for manufacturing the same, and perpendicular magnetization-type magnetic tunnel junction element in which said structure or magnetic tunnel junction film is used

The object of the present invention is to attain an unconventionally high tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio by using a barrier layer made of an MgAlOtype insulator material with a spinel structure. The problem can be solved by a magnetic tunnel junction in which a barrier layer is made of a cubic nonmagnetic material having a spinel structure, and both of two ferromagnetic layers that are adjacently on and below the barrier layer are made of a CoFeAl Heusler alloy. Preferably, the nonmagnetic material is made of oxide of an MgAl(0&#x3c;x&#x2264;1) alloy, and exhibits tunnel magnetoresistance of 250% or more and 34000% or less at a room temperature.

Magnetic tunnel junction, magnetoresistive element and spintronics device in which said magnetic tunnel junction is used, and method of manufacturing magnetic tunnel junction

An object of the present invention is to provide a Magneto-Resistance (MR) element showing a high Magneto-Resistance (MR) ratio and having a suitable Resistance-Area (RA) for device applications. The MR element of the present invention has a laminated structure including a first ferromagnetic layer, a non-magnetic layer, and a second ferromagnetic layeron a substrate, wherein the first ferromagnetic layerincludes a Heusler alloy, the second ferromagnetic layerincludes a Heusler alloy, the non-magnetic layerincludes a I-III-VIchalcopyrite-type compound semiconductor, and the non-magnetic layerhas a thickness of 0.5 to 3 nm, and wherein the MR element shows a Magneto-Resistance (MR) change of 40% or more, and has a resistance-area (RA) of 0.1 [&#x3a9;&#x3bc;m] or more and 3 [&#x3a9;&#x3bc;m] or less.

Magneto-resistance element in which I-III-VI2 compound semiconductor is used, method for manufacturing said magneto-resistance element, and magnetic storage device and spin transistor in which said magneto-resistance element is used

Disclosed is a perpendicularly magnetized film structure using a highly heat resistant underlayer film on which a cubic or tetragonal perpendicularly magnetized film can grow, comprising a substrate of a cubic single crystal substrate having a (001) plane or a substrate having a cubic oriented film that grows to have the (001) plane; an underlayer formed on the substrate from a thin film of a metal having an hcp structure in which the [0001] direction of the thin metal film forms an angle in the range of 42&#xb0; to 54&#xb0; with respect to the &#x3c;001&#x3e; direction or the (001) orientation of the substrate; and a perpendicularly magnetized layer located on the metal underlayer and formed from a cubic material selected from a Co-based Heusler alloy and a cobalt-iron (CoFe) alloy having a bcc structure a constituent material, and grown to have the (001) plane.

Underlayer for perpendicularly magnetized film, perpendicularly magnetized film structure, perpendicular MTJ element, and perpendicular magnetic recording medium using the same

Provided is a magnetoresistance effect element in which a tunnel barrier layer stably has a cation disordered spinel structure. This magnetoresistance effect element includes a first ferromagnetic layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, and a tunnel barrier layer disposed between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer. In addition, the tunnel barrier layer is an oxide of MgAl(0&#x2264;x&#x3c;1) and an amount of oxygen in the tunnel barrier layer is lower than an amount of oxygen in a fully oxidized state in which the oxide has an ordered spinel structure.

Magnetoresistance effect element and method for manufacturing the same

Embodiments of the inventive concepts provide a flat perpendicular magnetic layer having a low saturation magnetization and a perpendicular magnetization-type tunnel magnetoresistive element using the same. The perpendicular magnetic layer is a nitrogen-poor (MnGa)Nlayer (0&#x3c;x&#x2264;0.5 and 0&#x3c;y&#x3c;0.1) formed by providing nitrogen (N) into a MnGa alloy while adjusting a nitrogen amount. The perpendicular magnetic layer can be formed flat.

Perpendicular magnetic layer and magnetic device including the same

According to one embodiment, a magnetoresistive element includes a first magnetic layer, a second magnetic layer, and a first nonmagnetic layer. The first nonmagnetic layer is provided between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer. The first nonmagnetic layer includes an oxide including an inverse-spinel structure.

Magnetoresistive element and magnetic memory device

Disclosed is a perpendicularly magnetized film structure that uses a highly heat resistant underlayer film on which a cubic or tetragonal perpendicularly magnetized film can grow with high quality, the structure comprising any one substrate () of a cubic single crystal substrate having a (001) plane, or a substrate having a cubic oriented film that grows to have the (001) plane; an underlayer () formed on the substrate () from a thin film of a metal having an hcp structure, such as Ru or Re, in which the [0001] direction of the thin metal film forms an angle in the range of 42&#xb0; to 54&#xb0; with respect to the &#x3c;001&#x3e; direction or the (001) orientation of the substrate (); and a perpendicularly magnetized layer () located on the metal underlayer () and formed from a cubic material selected from the group consisting of a Co-based Heusler alloy, a cobalt-iron (CoFe) alloy having a bcc structure, and the like, as a constituent material, and grown to have the (001) plane.

Provided is a structure having a perpendicular magnetization film which is an (MnGa)N(0&#x3c;x&#x2266;0.5, 0&#x3c;y&#x3c;1) thin film having a nitrogen-deficient composition which is formed by controlling and introducing nitrogen N into an MnGa alloy or a thin film containing at least one of Ge, Zn, Sb, Ni, Ag, Sn, Pt, and Rh, instead of Ga. The perpendicular magnetization film exhibits a Curie temperature sufficiently higher than room temperature, has saturation magnetization smaller than that of existing materials, and is capable of being fabricated as a very flat film.

Perpendicular magnetization film, perpendicular magnetization film structure, magnetoresistance element, and perpendicular magnetic recording medium

Provided are an element structure in which a magnetic layer has a high magnetic anisotropy constant and saturated magnetization properties in a thickness of 1.5 nm or less, and a magnetic device that uses the element structure. A BCC metal nitride/CoFeB/MgO film structure that uses a nitride of a BCC metal as a seed layer is fabricated. The nitride amount in the BCC metal nitride is preferably less than 60% in terms of volume ratio based on 100% BCC metal. It is thereby possible to readily obtain a perpendicularly magnetized film having the magnetic properties that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is 0.1&#xd7;10erg/cmor more and the saturated magnetization is 200 emu/cmor more, even when the thickness of the magnetic layer is 0.3 nm or more and 1.5 nm or less.

Perpendicularly magnetized ultrathin film exhibiting high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, method for manufacturing same, and application

To realize a spintronics device with high performance, it is an object of the present invention to provide a CoFe-based Heusler alloy having a spin polarization larger than 0.65, and a high performance spintronics devices using the same. A CoFe(GaGe) Heusler alloy shows a spin polarization higher than 0.65 by a PCAR method in a region of 0.25&#x3c;x&#x3c;0.60 and it has a Curie temperature as high as 1288K. A CPP-GMR device that uses the CoFe(GaGe) Heusler alloy as an electrode exhibits the world's highest MR ratio, an STO device exhibits high output, and an NLSV device exhibits a high spin signal.

[object Object]

A ferromagnetic tunnel junction structure comprising a first ferromagnetic layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, and a tunnel barrier layer that is interposed between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer, wherein the tunnel barrier layer includes a crystalline non-magnetic material having constituent elements that are similar to those of an crystalline oxide that has spinel structure as a stable phase structure; the non-magnetic material has a cubic structure having a symmetry of space group Fm-3m or F-43m in which atomic arrangement in the spinel structure is disordered; and an effective lattice constant of the cubic structure is substantially half of the lattice constant of the oxide of the spinel structure.

Ferromagnetic tunnel junction structure and magnetoresistive effect device and spintronics device utilizing same

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Seiji Mitani