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Interlayer Exchange Coupling in Single Crystal Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Studied by Electron Holography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Etienne Snoeck ,
Coriolan Tiusan ,
Fanny Greullet ,
Gerard Benassayag ,
Pierre Baules  and
Alain Schuhl
Etienne Snoeck
Affiliation:
snoeck@cemes.fr, CNRS, CEMES, 29 rue J. Marvig, Toulouse, 31400, France, +33(0)562 257 891, +33(0)562 257 999
Coriolan Tiusan
Affiliation:
coriolan.tiusan@lpm.u-nancy.fr, CNRS - Université de Nancy, Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, Bd. des Aiguillettes, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, 54506, France
Fanny Greullet
Affiliation:
fanny.greullet@lpm.u-nancy.fr, CNRS - Université de Nancy, Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, Bd. des Aiguillettes, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, 54506, France
Gerard Benassayag
Affiliation:
benassay@cemes.fr, CNRS, CEMES, 29 rue J. Marvig, Toulouse, 31400, France
Pierre Baules
Affiliation:
baules@cemes.fr, CNRS, CEMES, 29 rue J. Marvig, Toulouse, 31400, France
Alain Schuhl
Affiliation:
alain.schuhl@cea.fr, CEA - CNRS, SPINTEC, Av. des Martyrs, Grenoble, 38054, France
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Abstract

Ion irradiation has been performed on epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions exhibiting antiferromagnetic exchange coupling. Electron holography and VSM experiments show that the amplitude and the nature of the coupling are modified by the irradiation. We demonstrate that the roughness induced by the irradiation at the Fe/MgO interfaces destroys the AF coupling. The biquadratic coupling experimentally observed in the irradiated samples is the result of the competition between local antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic coupling. For the largest irradiation doses, the net coupling becomes ferromagnetic.

Keywords

transmission electron microscopy (TEM)ion-implantationmagnetic properties
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1026: Symposium C – Quantitative Electron Microscopy for Materials Science , 2007 , 1026-C22-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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