Electrical switching in Fe /Cr/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions

Hysteretic resistance switching is observed in epitaxial Fe /Cr/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions under bias voltage cycling between negative and positive values of about 1V. The junctions switch back and forth between high- and low-resistance states, both of which depend on the device bias history. A linear dependence is found between the magnitude of the tunnel magnetoresistance and the crafted resistance of the junctions. To explain these results, a model is proposed that considers electron transport both by elastic tunneling and by defect-assisted transmission.