Electronic transport in ferromagnetic multilayers deposited by pulsed laser ablation

GRANELL, P.; L. G. PAMPILLO; F. D. SACCONE

Workshop; Electric Pulsed Induced Changes in Oxides - EPICO-2012; 2012

CNEA

Ferromagnetic multilayers with different configurations were deposited by pulsed laser ablation. Spin valves (10nmCoFe2/3nmCu/10nmCoFe2/20nmCoFe2O4/Si) and magnetic tunneling junctions (10nmNiFe/5nmZnO/10nmCo/Si) were fabricated and characterized at room temperature without external magnetic field applied. The spin valve showed two different bias regimes, with a marked decrease in resistance for applied voltages greater than 0,2 V. We suggest that this could be attributed to the creation of conduction paths with increasing voltage, due to a partially oxidized copper layer during deposition. Resistive switching and hysteresis in the I-V curve was observed in the magnetic tunneling junction. We propose that the switching effect could be explained by a change in the relative magnetization direction between ferromagnetic layers due to the circulation of spin polarized current (spin-transfer torque). This effect is typically observed in spintronic memristors.