title: Tunneling phenomena as a probe to investigate atomic scale fluctuations in Metal/Oxide/Metal magnetic tunnel junctions
abstract: Local transport properties of Al2O3 tunnel barriers have been investigated at a nanometric spatial scale with an unconventional near field microscope. Using the tunneling effect, which is extremely sensitive to fluctuations of the barrier parameters (less than 1 to 2 A), a unique method is introduced to investigate the tunnel barrier quality. This technique provides atomic scale information on the barrier characteristics which cannot be obtained by conventional surface analysis techniques since they are all subject to averaging over surface and depth.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique et Chimie des Materiaux de Strasbourg, CNRS (UMR 7504) and Universite Louis Pasteur, 23 rue du Loess, 67037 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.lastname: Da Costa V
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tiusan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dimopoulos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ounadjela