Frequency-dependent magnetoresistance and magnetocapacitance properties of

magnetic tunnel junctions with MgO tunnel barrier

P. Padhan, P. LeClair, A. Gupta, K. Tsunekawa, and D. D. Djayaprawira
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 90, 142105 (2007); doi: 10.1063/1.2719032
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2719032
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/90/14?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
Articles you may be interested in
Impedance spectroscopy of micron sized magnetic tunnel junctions with MgO tunnel barrier
Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 232506 (2010); 10.1063/1.3449573
Experimental study of time-dependent switching current in MgO based magnetic tunnel junction
J. Appl. Phys. 105, 07C906 (2009); 10.1063/1.3056578
Ion beam assisted deposition of MgO barriers for magnetic tunnel junctions
J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07A905 (2008); 10.1063/1.2833823
Spin-dependent tunneling characteristics of fully epitaxial magnetic tunneling junctions with a full-Heusler alloy
Co 2 Mn Si thin film and a MgO tunnel barrier
Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 192505 (2006); 10.1063/1.2378397
Low-frequency noise in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions
J. Appl. Phys. 99, 08T306 (2006); 10.1063/1.2165142

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
131.247.116.52 On: Wed, 11 Mar 2015 02:04:56

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 90, 142105 2007

Frequency-dependent magnetoresistance and magnetocapacitance

properties of magnetic tunnel junctions with MgO tunnel barrier
P. Padhan,a P. LeClair, and A. Guptab
Center for Materials for Information Technology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487

K. Tsunekawa and D. D. Djayaprawira

Electron Device Equipment Division, Canon Anelva Corporation, 5-8-1 Yotsuya, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo 1838508, Japan

Received 19 January 2007; accepted 28 February 2007; published online 4 April 2007
The frequency-dependent impedance of magnetic tunnel junctions MTJs with MgO barriers was
investigated. The capacitance of the MTJs switches from high to low when the relative electrode
magnetizations change from parallel to antiparallel, opposite the resistance change. Additionally, for
parallel magnetizations, the capacitance varies with temperature though resistance remains
approximately constant. The low frequency resistance and the tunneling magnetoresistance are in
agreement with dc values. The capacitance is found to be larger than the expected geometrical
capacitance, in contrast to MTJs with Al2O3 barriers. These results are explained by screening due
to charge and spin accumulation at the interfaces. 2007 American Institute of Physics.
DOI: 10.1063/1.2719032
Magnetic tunnel junctions1 MTJs are promising candidates for a wide range of spintronic applications, such as
magnetic random access memory. One of the major recent
developments in this field has been the theoretical
prediction2 and experimental verification36 of extremely
high tunneling magnetoresistance TMR in MTJs with MgO
barriers. Recent work reports room temperature TMR values
over 470% and above 800% at low temperatures.6 The transport in MTJs depends sensitively on the details of the electronic, magnetic, and geometric structures of the interfaces
between the ferromagnets FMs and the barrier. In this letter, we attempt to address how this sensitivity plays a role in
frequency-dependent magnetotransport, which is naturally
relevant for high-speed storage applications. Impedance
spectroscopy is a straightforward way to investigate
frequency-dependent transport phenomena. More simply,
however, even the value of the junction capacitance in MTJs,
aside from its possible spin dependence, is still under investigation. Significant variations from the geometrical capacitance have been observed for a variety of insulating barriers,
such as Ta2O5, AlOx, ZnS, and Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3, which has
been attributed to interface effects.710 Consequently, tunneling junctions have been intensively investigated by ac impedance techniques.8,1113
In this letter, we report the interface-related impedance
Z properties of MgO-based MTJs. The Z of the MTJs is
well fit to an equivalence circuit of a parallel resistor R and
effective capacitor C network. We observe a significant
tunneling magnetocapacitance effect TMC, which is
smaller than the TMR. The equivalent circuit of the junction
indicates a negative effective interfacial capacitance Ci, resulting from a combination of charge and spin accumulation,
and attractive interactions between the ions at the interfaces.
MTJs fabricated with the structure 5 nm Ta/ 20 nm
CuN / 3 nm
Ta/ 15 nm
PtMn/ 2.5 nm
a

Electronic mail: ppadhan@mint.ua.edu

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail:
agupta@mint.ua.edu

Co70Fe30 / 0.85 nm
Ru/ 3 nm
Co60Fe20B20 / tMgO
MgO / 3 nm Co60Fe20B20 / 10 nm Ta/ 4 nm Ru with
tMgO = 2.5, 3, and 3.5 nm were grown on thermally oxidized
Si wafers using a magnetron sputtering system Canon
Anelva C7100. The details of the deposition conditions and
processing have been presented previously.5,14 Patterned
MTJs of differing junction areas were characterized by both
dc and ac electrical transport using a four probe technique.
The ac impedance measurements were performed using an
HP4294A impedance analyzer.
The MTJs with 2.5, 3, and 3.5 nm thick MgO layers
exhibit TMR values of 247%, 221%, and 160%, respectively,
at room temperature with 10 mV dc bias voltage. Approximately the same values of TMR are found using 10 mVrms ac
voltage at low frequency 1 kHz; discussed later in the
text. The TMR was calculated by extracting the resistance
of the junction from the Z and phase angle. We have
initially modeled the junction as a parallel network of R and
C, as shown in the inset of Fig. 1. These two components are
related to the measured total Z and of the parallel RC
network by the expressions R2 = Z21 + tan2 and C2
= Z21 + 1 / tan2 1, where is the frequency in rad/s.
The R and C of the MTJ with 3 nm thick MgO junction

FIG. 1. Color online Magnetic-field-dependent resistance a and capacitance b of the magnetic tunnel junction MTJ with 3 nm thick MgO
barrier layer at various temperatures. Inset shows the circuit equivalent of
the MTJ.

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
0003-6951/2007/9014/142105/3/$23.00
90, 142105-1
2007 American Institute of Physics
131.247.116.52 On: Wed, 11 Mar 2015 02:04:56

142105-2

Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 142105 2007

Padhan et al.

FIG. 2. Real close/open circle and imaginary close/open square impedances as a function of frequency at 300 K for the parallel close circle/
square and antiparallel open circle/square orientations of the magnetizations of the FM electrodes of the MTJ with different MgO layer thicknesses.
The solid lines are the fit to the data as described in the text.

FIG. 3. Room temperature tunneling magnetoresistance TMR and tunneling magnetoconductance TMC as a function of frequency of MTJs with
different MgO layer thicknesses.

MTJ. This is in contrast with the smaller capacitance observed with AlOx barriers.12 It should also be noted that the
value of the effective capacitance obtained from the fits
yields a dielectric constant larger than the dielectric constant
area= 100 20 m2 as functions of field for different temof bulk MgO.
peratures T are shown in Figs. 1a and 1b. The fieldThe low frequency TMR and high frequency TMC are
dependent Z and of the MTJ are measured with 10 mVrms
calculated from R and C using the antiparallel-parallel/
bias and 100 kHz frequency at all temperatures. The
parallel definition. The frequency dependence of TMR and
resistance-field R-H curves exhibit two states: a low R
TMC of the three MTJs are shown in Fig. 3. Both the TMR
state, which is nearly T independent, corresponding to the
and TMC of the MTJs with tMgO = 2.5 and 3 nm are nearly
parallel alignment of the moments of the FM electrodes,
independent of frequency, while some variation is observed
while the T-dependent higher R state corresponding to the
in the TMR and TMC of the MTJ with tMgO = 3.5 nm. The
antiparallel alignment of the moments.14 Similar to R-H, the
decrease of TMR at frequency larger than 20 kHz in the MTJ
field-dependent effective capacitance C-H shows switching
with tMgO = 3.5 nm could be due to the partial reorientation of
of C with magnetic field. Interestingly, C is higher when the
magnetization of the electrodes from the antiparallel to parmoments of the electrodes are parallel and is lower when
allel state, or the suppression of the tunneling conduction by
antiparallel, opposite the R behavior. Moreover, with dethe capacitive path leakage. Note that the magnitude of
creasing T, C in the parallel state decreases while in the
the TMR is considerably larger than the TMC. In contrast,
antiparallel state it increases. Similar field-dependent behavfor MTJs with the AlOx barrier between Co electrodes, TMR
ior of R and C at various temperatures has been observed in
and TMC values of comparable magnitude were observed.15
MTJs with 2.5 and 3.5 nm thick MgO barriers.
The consistency in the TMR observed in the dc and ac
Figure 2 shows the frequency dependence of the real and
measurements, the Cole-Cole diagram of the impedance
imaginary parts of the impedance ReZ and ImZ, respeccomponents, and the parallel RC network fit to the observed
tively of three MTJs with parallel p and antiparallel ap
impedance components all strongly support our equivalent
orientations of the electrode moments. A distinguishing feacircuit representation of the MTJ. The data also can be fitted
ture is the increase in the characteristic RC time with deto the Maxwell-Wagner model,16 but the R and C calculated
crease in the thickness of the MgO barrier, as reflected by the
from the fit do not provide the same value of TMR which is
increased cutoff frequency. The characteristic RC time is also
observed in the dc measurements, nor do they yield the bulk
influenced by the relative orientation of the electrodes magdielectric constant of MgO barrier. The fit of the data to the
netization, as seen in Fig. 2. The Cole-Cole diagrams, the
more complicated equivalent circuit used in Ref. 17 also replot of ReZ as a function of ImZ, of these MTJs show an
sults in an unphysically high value of the dielectric constant
of MgO. Our data also do not fit the complex lossy capaciapproximate semicircle, which confirms the presence of a
tance model,13 which results in a negative capacitance for
parallel network of R and C in the MTJ. This is verified by
some values of the frequency.
modeling the circuit equivalents of the junction as the paralAs mentioned previously, the simple parallel RC netlel network of R and C inset of Fig. 1 with ReZ = R / 1
work equivalent circuit of the MTJ yields a dielectric con+ RC2 and ImZ = R2C / 1 + RC2. The fit of
stant for MgO larger than that in the bulk. Thus, we have
these two relations of the impedance components to the exmodified the effective capacitance of the RC network and
perimental data is shown by the solid line fits in Fig. 2. The
used a series combination of an interface capacitance Ci
observed spectra are well fit to the single parallel RC netand a bulk capacitance from the MgO CMgO, as shown in
work and yield values of R and TMR as a function of tMgO
the inset of Fig. 4. The fit of this modified equivalent circuit
which are essentially identical to those obtained from dc
yields nearly the same value of Ci for all MTJs with varying
measurements. We find that the value of the effective capaciThis article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions.
Downloaded to IP:
tMgO, and importantly yields a dielectric constant for MgO
tance is larger than that of the geometrical capacitance of the
131.247.116.52 On: Wed, 11 Mar 2015 02:04:56

142105-3

Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 142105 2007

Padhan et al.

FIG. 4. Inverse capacitance for parallel and antiparallel orientations of the

magnetizations of the FM electrodes of the MTJ with different MgO layer
thicknesses. The solid lines are the linear fit. Inset shows the modified
equivalent circuit of the MTJ including an interface capacitance.

close to the bulk value. This is seen from the linear plot of
the C1 vs tMgO for both the parallel and antiparallel orientations Fig. 4. The linear relationship allows us to extract the
dielectric constant of the MgO layer as 8.80, close to
that of bulk MgO 100, and Ci as 12.8 and
13.2 F / cm2 per interface for the parallel and antiparallel
orientations of the FM electrodes, respectively. The magnitude of Ci of the MTJs with MgO barrier lies within the
range of the Ci reported for junctions with AlOx barriers
viz., 3 to 16 F / cm2 per interface12,13. The Ci can be associated with the screening of the exchange interaction, in addition to the Coulomb interaction by the electrons in the FM
electrodes. The interface screening length can be expressed as12 = CMgOtMgO / 2Ci. The values of we find
for a MTJ with a 3 nm thick MgO barrier are 0.069 and
0.066 nm for the parallel and antiparallel orientations of the
magnetization of electrodes, respectively. The negative value
of the screening length, as explained by Miesenbck and
Tosi,18 corresponds to oscillatory screening associated with
pileup of screening charge on the interface charges. Thus,
the exchange and short-range correlation in the screening
lead to an attractive effective interaction between the ions in
the metallic electrodes. A small difference in the screening
length between the parallel and antiparallel orientations of
the magnetization of the electrodes indicates the presence of
charge and magnetization screening at the interfaces.19 The
charge accumulation, which is independent of the conduction
processes, could potentially explain the lower TMC compared with the TMR Fig. 3 as well as the variation of the
effective capacitance for parallel magnetizations Fig. 1.
Clearly, more theoretical and experimental work is required
to fully explain the magnitude of the TMC and the effectively negative interfacial capacitance.

In summary, we have observed that MTJs with MgO

barrier can switch from high to low capacitance by switching
the relative orientation of the magnetization of the electrodes
from the parallel to the antiparallel state. The effective capacitance at different temperatures varies while the resistance remains approximately constant for the parallel orientation of the magnetization of the ferromagnetic electrodes.
The effective capacitance of the MTJ with MgO barrier is
determined to be larger than the geometrical capacitance.
These observations are qualitatively explained by the screening effect of charge and spin accumulation at the interfaces.
The authors would like to thank G. X. Miao for help in
patterning the tunnel junctions and A. F. Hebard for useful
discussions. This work was supported by NSF MRSEC
Grant No. DMR-0213985.
1

For example, see J. S. Moodera and G. Mathon, J. Magn. Magn. Mater.

200, 248 1999.
2
W. H. Butler, X.-G. Zhang, T. C. Schulthess, and J. M. MacLaren, Phys.
Rev. B 63, 054416 2001.
3
S. S. Parkin, C. Kaiser, A. Panchula, P. M. Rice, B. Hughes, M. Samant,
and S.-H. Wang, Nat. Mater. 3, 862 2004.
4
S. Yuasa, T. Nagahama, A. Fukushima, Y. Suzuki, and K. Ando, Nat.
Mater. 3, 868 2004.
5
D. D. Djayaprawira, K. Ksunekawa, M. Nagai, H. Maehara, S. Yamagata,
N. Watanabe, S. Yuasa, Y. Suzuki, and K. Ando, Appl. Phys. Lett. 86,
092502 2005.
6
Y. M. Lee, J. Hayakawa, S. Ikeda, F. Matsukura, and H. Ohno, Appl. Phys.
Lett. 89, 042506 2006; J. Hayakawa, S. Ikeda, Y. M. Lee, F. Matsukura,
and H. Ohno, ibid. 89, 232510 2006.
7
C. A. Mead, Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 545 1961.
8
J. Du, G. Landry, X. H. Xiang, and J. Q. Xiao, Phys. Status Solidi A 189,
559 2002.
9
A. F. Hebard, S. A. Ajuria, and R. H. Eick, Appl. Phys. Lett. 51, 1349
1987.
10
S. Zafar, R. E. Jones, P. Chu, B. White, B. Jiang, D. Taylor, P. Zurcher,
and S. Gillepsie, Appl. Phys. Lett. 72, 2820 1998.
11
M. F. Gillies, A. E. T. Kuiper, R. Coehoorn, and T. M. Donkers, J. Appl.
Phys. 88, 429 2000.
12
G. Landry, Y. Dong, J. Du, X. Xiang, and J. Q. Xiao, Appl. Phys. Lett. 78,
501 2001.
13
K. T. McCarthy, S. B. Arnason, and A. F. Hebard, Appl. Phys. Lett. 74,
302 1999.
14
G. Miao, K. B. Chetry, A. Gupta, W. H. Butler, K. Tsunekawa, D.
Djayaprawira, and G. Xiao, J. Appl. Phys. 99, 08T305 2006.
15
H. Kaiju, S. Fujita, T. Morozumi, and K. Shiiki, J. Appl. Phys. 91, 7430
2002.
16
A. von Hippel, Dielectrics and Waves Artech House, London, 1995, p.
228.
17
W. C. Chien, C. K. Lo, L. C. Hsieh, Y. D. Yao, X. F. Han, Z. M. Zeng, T.
Y. Peng, and P. Lin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 202515 2006.
18
H. M. Miesenbck and M. P. Tosi, Z. Phys. B: Condens. Matter 78, 255
1990.
19
S. Zhang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 640 1999.

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
131.247.116.52 On: Wed, 11 Mar 2015 02:04:56