Structural and Magnetic Properties of Mn 3 Ge Grown on a Thin Polycrystalline MgO Seed Layer
Abstract
D022-Mn3Ge has been studied recently for its large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and low magnetization, which enables it as a potential alternative material for the scaling of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) used in spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM). Most of the research was carried out on D022-Mn3Ge deposited by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on single crystalline MgO substrates. As the use of single crystalline substrates is not compatible with an industrial integration flow, we developed a polycrystalline MgO seed layer by physical vapor deposition (PVD) on Si. PMA is observed in MBE-grown D022-Mn3Ge with coercive field up to 4.5 Tesla, even when the PVD-MgO seed is only 1 nm thick. It indicates that PVD-MgO is able to serve as the seed layer for D022-Mn3Ge integration to MTJs. However, no PMA is observed in Mn3Ge grown by PVD, which is attributed to different kinetics taking place during PVD deposition.
- Publication:
-
Physica Status Solidi Rapid Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- June 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1002/pssr.201800681
- Bibcode:
- 2019PSSRR..1300681L