Interlayer magnetic coupling interactions of two ferromagnetic layers by spin polarized tunneling.
Magnetic interactions involving ferromagnetic layers separated by an insulating barrier have been studied experimentally on a fully epitaxial hard-soft magnetic tunnel junction: Fe/MgO/Fe/Co. For a barrier thickness below 1 nm, a clear antiferromagnetic interaction is observed. Moreover, when reducing the MgO thickness from 1 to 0.5 nm, the coupling strength increases up to J=-0.26 erg.cm(-2). This behavior, well fitted by theoretical models, provides an unambiguous signature of the interlayer exchange coupling by spin-polarized quantum tunneling.
Faure-Vincent
J
J
Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre lès Nancy, France.
Bellouard
C Tiusan C
CT
Popova
E
E
Hehn
M
M
Montaigne
F
F
Schuhl
A
A