title: Parallel fabrication of magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars by nanosphere lithography.
abstract: We present a new method for fabricating magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars that uses polystyrene nanospheres as a lithographic template. Unlike the common approaches, which depend on electron beam lithography to sequentially fabricate each nanopillar, this method is capable of patterning a large number of nanopillars simultaneously. Both random and ordered nanosphere patterns have been explored for fabricating high quality tunneling junctions with magnetoresistance in excess of 100%, employing ferromagnetic layers with both out-of-plane and in-plane easy axis. Novel voltage induced switching has been observed in these structures. This method provides a cost-effective way of rapidly fabricating a large number of tunnel junction nanopillars in parallel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. wgwang@physics.arizona.edu
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pearse
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hageman
authors.forename: A X
authors.initials: AX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: F Q
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Chien