Nearly 70 years old dream of incorporating molecule as the device element is still challenged by competing defects in almost every experimentally tested molecular device approach. This paper focuses on the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) based molecular spintronics device (MTJMSD) method. An MTJMSD utilizes a tunnel barrier to ensure a robust and mass-producible physical gap between two ferromagnetic electrodes. MTJMSD approach may benefit from MTJ's industrial practices; however, the MTJMSD approach still needs to overcome additional challenges arising from the inclusion of magnetic molecules in conjunction with competing defects. Molecular device channels are covalently bonded between two ferromagnets across the insulating barrier. An insulating barrier may possess a variety of potential defects arising during the fabrication or operational phase. This paper describes an experimental and theoretical study of molecular coupling between ferromagnets in the presence of the competing coupling via an insulating tunnel barrier. We discuss the experimental observations of hillocks and pinhole-type defects producing inter-layer coupling that compete with molecular device elements. We performed theoretical simulations to encompass a wide range of competition between molecules and defects. Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) was used for investigating the defect-induced inter-layer coupling on MTJMSD. Our research may help understand and design molecular spintronics devices utilizing various insulating spacers such as aluminum oxide (AlOx) and magnesium oxide (MgO) on a wide range of metal electrodes. This paper intends to provide practical insights for researchers intending to investigate the molecular device properties via the MTJMSD approach and do not have a background in magnetic tunnel junction fabrication.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10175930
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- ISSN:
- 1944-8244
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) in the field of spintronics have received enormous attention owing to their fascinating spin phenomena for fundamental physics and potential applications. MTJs exhibit a large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) at room temperature. However, TMR depends strongly on the bias voltage, which reduces the magnitude of TMR. On the other hand, tunnel magnetocapacitance (TMC), which has also been observed in MTJs, can be increased when subjecting to a biasing voltage, thus exhibiting one of the most interesting spin phenomena. Here we report a large voltage-induced TMC beyond 330% in MgO-based MTJs, which is the largest value ever reported for MTJs. The voltage dependence and frequency characteristics of TMC can be explained by the newly proposed Debye-Fröhlich model using Zhang-sigmoid theory, parabolic barrier approximation, and spin-dependent drift diffusion model. Moreover, we predict that the voltage-induced TMC ratio could reach over 3000% in MTJs. It is a reality now that MTJs can be used as capacitors that are small in size, broadly ranged in frequencies and controllable by a voltage. Our theoretical and experimental findings provide a deeper understanding on the exact mechanism of voltage-induced AC spin transports in spintronic devices. Our research may open new avenues to the development of spintronics applications, such as highly sensitive magnetic sensors, high performance non-volatile memories, multi-functional spin logic devices, voltage controlled electronic components, and energy storage devices.
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c03428
