Issues

Search

Home > Issues > Search

Current-in-plane Tunneling Measurement through Patterned Contacts on Top Surfaces of Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Journal of Magnetics, Volume 16, Number 2, 30 Jun 2011, Pages 169-172
Ching-Ming Lee (Taiwan SPIN Research Center, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology), Lin-Xiu Ye (Taiwan SPIN Research Center, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology), Jia-Mou Lee (Taiwan SPIN Research Center, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology), Yu-Cyun Lin (Graduate School of Materials Science, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology), Chao-Yuan Huang (Taiwan SPIN Research Center, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology), J. C. Wu (Taiwan SPIN Research Center, National Changhua University of Education), Masakiyo Tsunoda (Department of Electronic Engineering, Tohoku University), Migaku Takahashi (Department of Electronic Engineering, Tohoku University), Te-ho Wu * (Taiwan SPIN Research Center, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology)
Abstract

This study reports an alternative method for measuring the magnetoresistance of unpatterned magnetic tunnel junctions similar to the current-in-plane tunneling (CIPT) method. Instead of using microprobes, a series of point contacts with different spacings are coated on the top surface of the junctions and R-H loops at various spacings are then measured by the usual four-point probe method. The values of magnetoresistance and resistance- area products can be obtained by fitting the measured data to the CIPT theoretical model. The test results of two types of junctions were highly similar to those obtained from standard CIPT tools. The proposed method may help to accelerate the process for evaluating the quality of magnetic tunnel junctions when commercial CIPT tools are not accessible.

 

Keywords: magnetic tunnel junctions; current-in-plane tunneling; magnetoresistance; resistance-area product
DOI: 10.4283/JMAG.2011.16.2.169
Full Text : PDF