First principles modeling of tunnel magnetoresistance of Fe/MgO/Fe trilayers.
We report ab initio calculations of nonequilibrium quantum transport properties of Fe/MgO/Fe trilayer structures. The zero bias tunnel magnetoresistance is found to be several thousand percent, and it is reduced to about 1000% when the Fe/MgO interface is oxidized. The tunnel magnetoresistance for devices without oxidization reduces monotonically to zero with a voltage scale of about 0.5-1 V, consistent with experimental observations. We present an understanding of the nonequilibrium transport by investigating microscopic details of the scattering states and the Bloch bands of the Fe leads.
Waldron
Derek
D
Centre for the Physics of Materials and Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, PQ, H3A 2T8, Canada.
Timoshevskii
Vladimir
V
Hu
Yibin
Y
Xia
Ke
K
Guo
Hong
H