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Nanoring magnetic tunnel junction and its application in magnetic random

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 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 103, 07E933 共2008兲

Nanoring magnetic tunnel junction and its application in magnetic random

access memory demo devices with spin-polarized current switching
„invited…
X. F. Han,a兲 Z. C. Wen, and H. X. Wei
State Key Laboratory of Magnetism, Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics,
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100080, People’s Republic of China
共Presented on 8 November 2007; received 14 September 2007; accepted 17 December 2007;
published online 26 March 2008兲
Current-driven magnetization switching was observed in the nanoring-shaped magnetic tunnel
junctions 共NR-MTJs兲 with key stack layers of both spin-valve-type antiferromagnetic/
ferromagnetic/insulator/ferromagnetic and sandwich-type hard ferromagnetic/insulator/soft
ferromagnetic structures. We successfully fabricated a series of ring-shaped MTJs with different
ring-outer diameters of between 80 nm and 4 ␮m and different ring width of between 25 nm and
2 ␮m. Tunneling magnetoresistance ratio between 20% and 80% with different thickness of thin
Al–O barrier was measured at room temperature as we apply a magnetic field or a pulsed current.
When the electric current density exceeds a critical value of the order of 6 ⫻ 106 A / cm2, the
magnetization of the two free and reference magnetic rings can be switched back and forth between
parallel and antiparallel onion states. The experiments show that the spin transfer torque plays a
main switching role in the magnetization reversal and the current-induced circular magnetic field
plays an assisted-switching role in such NR-MTJs. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.
关DOI: 10.1063/1.2839774兴

I. INTRODUCTION capacity of 16 and 4 Mbits using the Astroid and Toggle

Although the magnetic recording density of higher than
300 Gbits/ in.2 in hard disk driving 共HDD兲 system has been
realized within the last few years using the tunneling mag-
netoresistance 共TMR兲 effect and Al–O barrier-based
magnetic-tunnel-junction 共MTJ兲 read head, an applicable
magnetic random access memory 共MRAM兲 device with the
density or capacity more than 256 Mbits/ in.2 has not yet
been achieved despite a ten year effort.1–3 Especially, among
the predicted advantages of the MRAM which includes the
nonvolatility, antiradiation, unlimited endurance, high speed,
high density, low power consumption, etc., the last two items
have not been realized based on either the conventional mag-
netic field magnetization switching or the elliptic/
rectangular-shaped MTJ structures in the state of the present
MRAM devices. The main cause is that the stray field energy
and the shape anisotropy energy of a nanoscale size MTJ
increase distinctly with increasing density, resulting in the
very large coercivity and switching field and further higher
power consumption compared with that of a microscale size
MTJ. In addition, the strong stray field interactions between
the ferromagnetic layers inside of a MTJ or/and between the
nearest neighboring MTJ cells can result in large magneto-
conjunction effect and magnetic noise, which can whittle the
independence and consistency for each MTJ as a memory
cell.4 In this regard, conventional elliptic-or rectangular-
shaped MTJ structures may restrict the present MRAM de-
vice development. The newfangled MRAM devices with the
a兲
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:
xfhan@aphy.iphy.ac.cn.
model designs are fabricated, respectively.5,6 Therefore, in-
creased power consumption and reduced thermal stability are
two major obstacles in developing ever smaller magnetic el-
ements and higher density for advanced magnetic memory
technology.7,8
Previous experiments demonstrated that the power con-
sumption for switching the spin-valve pillars9 or magnetic
tunnel junctions10 can be decreased by using the spin transfer
torque 共STT兲 effect from the spin-polarized current, in which
the shape of the magnetic element has been patterned into
elliptic or rectangular shape. Undesired properties such as a
large shape anisotropy and a strong stray field would place a
severe limitation on these magnetic elements for ultrahigh
density memory devices. To simultaneously improve the
power consumption and the thermal stability for developing
the MRAM, it is desirable to nanofabricate ring-shaped
MTJs whose magnetization directions can be directly con-
trolled by the spin-polarized current and spin transfer torque
effect.11 With a ring-shaped magnetic monolayer and giant
magnetoresistance 共GMR兲 multilayers or spin valve, it can
offer a significant improvement in terms of eliminating the
stray field and enhancing the thermal stability since the mag-
netization will form a vortex structure free of magnetic
poles.12,13 However, the GMR of spin valves is contrastively
smaller than that of the TMR of MTJs to be useful for
memory application. Clearly, MTJs would have much larger
TMR 共Refs. 14–16兲 than the GMR of spin valves.
In this work we report the observation of both current-
driven magnetization switching and magnetic field magneti-
zation switching in the nano- and microring-shaped MTJs
共NR-MTJs and MR-MTJs兲. We successfully fabricated a se-

0021-8979/2008/103共7兲/07E933/6/$23.00 103, 07E933-1 © 2008 American Institute of Physics

Author complimentary copy. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://jap.aip.org/jap/copyright.jsp
07E933-2 Han, Wen, and Wei J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07E933 共2008兲

ries of ring-shaped MTJs with the different ring-outer diam-

eters of between 80 nm and 4 ␮m and the different ring
width of between 25 nm and 2 ␮m. The TMR ratio between
20% and 80% with the different thickness of thin Al–O bar-
rier was achieved at room temperature 共RT兲 as we apply a
pulsed current or a magnetic field. When the electric current
density exceeds a critical valve of the order of 6
⫻ 106 A / cm2 in the nanoring-shaped MTJs, the magnetiza-
tion of the two free and reference magnetic rings can be
switched back and forth between parallel and antiparallel on-
ion states. The experiments and theoretical analysis show
that both the spin transfer torque and the current-induced
circular magnetic field play main switching and assisted-
switching roles, respectively.

II. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

We successfully made a series of two types of ring-

shaped MTJ structures with a high TMR ratio of between
20% and 80% at RT, the different ring-outer diameters of
between 80 nm and 4 ␮m, and the different ring width of
between 25 nm and 2 ␮m. Here the TMR ratio is defined as
TMR= 共RAP − RP兲 / RP. First, spin-valve ring-shaped MTJs
were fabricated with the key stack layers of antiferromag-
netic 共AFM兲/ferromagnetic 共FM兲/insulator 共I兲/ ferromagnetic
共FM兲. And second, sandwich-type ring-shaped MTJs were
fabricated using the key stack layers of hard ferromagnetic
共HFM兲/insulator 共I兲/soft ferromagnetic 共SFM兲 structures for
discarding the easily diffused Mn-alloy layer as the AFM
pinning layer. The sandwich-type ring-shaped MTJs also
have potential applications in fabricating memory devices
due to its good compatibility to fitting the semiconductor
FIG. 1. 共Color online兲 共a兲 A designed sandwich-type nano-ring MTJ struc-
annealing and integrated techniques.
ture. Three stable magnetization patterns of vortex, symmetric onion, or
The MTJ films were first deposited on the Si共100兲 / SiO2 asymmetric onion states can be respected to exist in each ring-shaped FM
substrate under a built-in in-plane magnetic field of about layer at zero magnetic field. 共b兲 Scanning electron micrographs 共SEMs兲 of a
100 Oe using an ULVAC TMR R&D Magnetron Sputtering typical patterned nanoring MTJ with outer diameter D = 100 nm and ring
width W = 30 nm.
System 共MPS-4000-HC7兲 with a base pressure of 1
⫻ 10−6 Pa. The Al oxide barrier was fabricated by induc-
tively coupled plasma 共ICP兲 oxidizing among 0.6, 0.7, and III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
0.8 nm Al layer with an oxidation time of 10 and 20 s in a
A. Sandwich-type nanoring-shaped MTJs
mixture of oxygen and argon at a pressure of 1.0 Pa in a
separate chamber.17 Two electrodes situated above and below The MTJ films with the key layer structure consists
the NR-MTJ to measure its characteristics were patterned by of Ta共5兲 / Co75Fe25共2.5兲 / Al共d兲-oxide/ Co60Fe20B20共2.5兲 /
ultraviolet optical lithography 共UVL兲 combined with Ar-ion Ta共3兲 / Ru共5兲 共thickness unit: nm and d = 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8兲
beam milling and reactive ion etching 共RIE兲. The active ring- were deposited on Si/ SiO2 substrate, then patterned to get
shaped junction area was patterned by electron beam lithog- the sandwich-type single or array NR-MTJs as shown in Fig.
raphy 共EBL兲 with a Raith 150 scanning electron microscope 1 and 2. Figure 1共a兲 and 1共b兲 is a sketch of the designed
using positive E-beam resist of polymethyl methacrylate sandwich-type nano-ring MTJ structure and scanning elec-
共PMMA兲 and negative E-beam resist of hydrogen silsesqui- tron micrograph 共SEM兲 of a typical patterned nanoring MTJ
oxane 共HSQ兲 techniques. The nanoring MTJ pillar including with outer diameter D = 100 nm and ring with W = 30 nm,
the top resist was then buried by SiO2 deposition using a respectively. After considerable experiments, the outer diam-
KJLC sputtering system. Finally, the resist and SiO2 on the eter of the ring can be controlled from 100 to 4000 nm with
top of a nanoring were removed using a lift-off process, be- ring width W of from 25 nm to 2000 nm with a good unifor-
fore the top electrode was patterned in the perpendicular di- mity. Figure 2 shows the SEM images of nanoring array with
rection. Transport properties were measured using a standard outer diameters D = 200 nm 共a兲, 400 共b兲, 600 共c兲, and 800 共d兲
four probe method or a physical property measurement sys- nm, respectively. These nanoring arrays can be served as
tem 共PPMS兲 at RT. storage cells of MRAM and magnetic recording medium.

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07E933-3 Han, Wen, and Wei J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07E933 共2008兲

FIG. 2. SEM images of the typical ring-shaped MTJ arrays and the single MTJ whose outer diameters are D = 200 nm 共a兲, 400 nm 共b兲, 600 nm 共c兲, 800 nm
共d兲 and ring width W = 30 nm, respectively.

The magnetization state of a typical NR-MTJ can usu- tunnel resistance, so that the current does not affect the mag-
ally have three possible stable configurations at the remanent netic state. At a large field, magnetization of both ring-
state: vortex, symmetric onion and asymmetric onion mag- shaped free and reference FM layers is in the parallel onion
netization states. Since our deposited MTJ FM layers have
an in-plane field induced easy magnetization direction
共EMD兲, the magnetization of both ferromagnetic free and
reference layers for the ring-shaped MTJs with remanent
state can usually form the symmetric onion states after the
patterned procedure. Especially, the onion states remain
stable after an external alignment magnetic field is turned
off, although the onion states are metastable states compar-
ing with the vortex state. During the magnetization process
under an external field, the asymmetric onion states also can
be formed due to the magnetostatic interaction of two do-
main walls or the pinning effect of nonsmooth ring-shaped
defects, etc. The different asymmetric onion states can result
to one or multiple interim magnetoresistance states between
the minimum 共parallel兲 and maximum magnetoresistance
共antiparallel兲 states as shown in Fig. 3.
Figure 3 shows the tunnel resistance 共R兲 as a function of
FIG. 3. 共Color online兲 The tunnel resistance 共R兲 as a function of the mag-
the magnetic field 共H兲 at RT which were measured with an
netic field 共H兲 at RT for a typical sandwich-type NR-MTJ with outer diam-
in-plane field for a typical sandwich-type NR-MTJ. A small eter of 100 nm and ring width of 25 nm. The barrier was formed by a
current of between 10 and 20 ␮A is used to measure the 0.70 nm Al layer with the oxidation time of 10 s.

Author complimentary copy. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://jap.aip.org/jap/copyright.jsp
07E933-4 Han, Wen, and Wei
FIG. 4. 共Color online兲 The tunnel resistance 共R兲 as a function of the spin-
polarized current 共I兲 at RT for a typical sandwich-type NR-MTJ with outer
diameter of 100 nm and ring width of 25 nm. The barrier was formed by a
0.60 nm Al layer with the oxidation time of 10 s.
state and thus the resistance is the lowest. When the field is
reduced, the stray field of the domain walls makes the onion
state of the upper and lower ring-shaped FM layers to rotate
in the opposite direction to reduce the magnetostatic energy
between the two onion states. Since the anisotropy of the two
layers is small, each onion state will oppositely rotate 90° to
form an antiparallel configuration, in such case the tunnel
resistance becomes maximum. Further reversing of the mag-
netic field forces the onion state of the two layers aligned in
parallel state again. The TMR ratio of around 39%, lower
and higher resistances of 1320 ⍀ and 1830 ⍀, minimum and
maximum resistance-area product RA of 7.77 ⍀ ␮m2 and
10.78 ⍀ ␮m2 at RT were, respectively, observed for the NR-
MTJ with a size of 5.89 knm2. Although vortex states with
the lowest energy state 共which possibly appears in the more
thick free and reference FM layers兲 are more stable than the
onion states, our experiments and the related micromagnetic
simulations by Wei et al.18 show that the transition from the
onion state to the vortex state does not occur when one
sweeps the in-plane magnetic field from a large positive to a
negative value for the samples with only a 2.5 nm thick FM
layer. Instead, the domain walls of the onion state travel
along the ring until the polarization of the onion state is
reversed.
Figure 4 shows the tunnel resistance 共R兲 versus spin-
polarized current 共I兲 loops driven by a pulse dc for a low
resistance NR-MTJ with outer diameter of 100 nm and ring
width of 25 nm. The use of the pulse current rather than a
steady current can avoid any significant heating effect and
thermal noise as well as reduce the thermally assisted mag-
netization reversal. Before each resistance measurement, a
current pulse with amplitude I and width between 200 and
500 ns was applied. Then, the resistance is measured by us-
ing a low readout current of 10 ␮A that will not disturb the
magnetic state of the NR-MTJ. By repeating the above pro-
cess for an increasing/decreasing amplitude of I, we obtained
the full R-I loop as shown in Fig. 4. The TMR ratio of
around 7.5%, lower and higher resistances of 265 and
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J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07E933 共2008兲
FIG. 5. Tunnel resistance 共R兲 as a function of the magnetic field 共H兲 at RT
for a typical spin-valve-type NR-MTJ with outer diameter of 200 nm and
ring width of 35 nm. The barrier was formed by a 0.70 nm Al layer with the
oxidation time of 15 s.
285 ⍀, and minimum and maximum resistance-area product
RA of 1.56 and 1.68 ⍀ ␮m2 at RT were, respectively, ob-
served for the NR-MTJ with a size of 5.89 knm2. In such
NR-MTJs, a relatively small critical value IC of switching
current between 450 and 650 ␮A at RT can switch the free
Co60Fe20B20共2.5 nm兲 layer magnetization from the parallel
to antiparallel onion state relative to that of the reference
Co75Fe25共2.5 nm兲 layer.
B. Spin-valve-type nanoring-shaped MTJs
The MTJ stack layers with the AFM/FM/I/FM key struc-
ture of Ta共5兲 / Ir22Mn78共10兲 / Co75Fe25共2兲 / Ru共0.75兲/
Co60Fe20B20共3兲/Al共0.7兲-oxide/ Co60Fe20B20共2.5兲/ Ta共3兲/ Ru共5兲
共thickness unit: nm兲 were deposited on Si/ SiO2 substrate,
then patterned to get the spin-valve-type single or array NR-
MTJs. Figure 5 shows the tunnel resistance 共R兲 versus mag-
netic field 共H兲 loops of a typical spin-valve NR-MTJ with
outer diameter D = 200 nm and ring width W = 35 nm at RT.
The TMR ratio of around 52%, lower and higher resistances
of 11.54 and 17.57 k⍀, and minimum and maximum
resistance-area product RA of 208 and 318 ⍀␮ m2 at RT
were, respectively, observed for this spin-valve NR-MTJ
with a size of 18.1 knm2. Under the external applied field,
the NR-MTJs show a spin-valve type of R vs H curves, as
shown in Fig. 5. In addition to two stable onion magnetiza-
tion states where the magnetizations of the free layer and
pinned layer are aligned parallel 共low resistance兲 and antipar-
allel 共high resistance兲 as observed in the sample, some meta-
stable magnetization states in such D = 200 nm NR-MTJs are
also formed due to the appeared asymmetric onion states.
Figure 6 shows the tunnel resistance 共R兲 versus spin-
polarized current 共I兲 loops driven by a pulse dc for one typi-
cal spin-valve-type NR-MTJs with the outer diameter of
100 nm and ring width of 25 nm and barrier thickness of
Al共0.70 nm兲 oxide. For the NR-MTJ with a size of
5.89 knm2, TMR ratio of 30%, lower and higher resistances
of 2684 and 3486 ⍀, and minimum and maximum
resistance-area product RA of 15.8 and 20.5 ⍀␮ m2 at RT
07E933-5 Han, Wen, and Wei J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07E933 共2008兲

FIG. 7. 共Color online兲 A prototype 2 ⫻ 2 MRAM demo device based on one

NR-MTJ and one transistor structure. Here the word line, also as the gate
line, plays the role of addressing each bit together with the cross bit line.

tures is possible. Figure 8 shows TMR ratio development of

Al-O barrier based MTJs with the years using different FM
material electrodes.24–30 It shows us that the Al-O barrier
FIG. 6. The tunnel resistance as a function of the spin-polarized current at based NR-MTJs, combined with spin polarized current
RT for a typical spin-valve-type NR-MTJ with outer diameter of 100 nm
and ring width of 25 nm. The barrier was formed by different thickness of
switching or magnetic field switching, will have more poten-
an Al共0.70 nm兲 layer with the oxidation time of 10 s. tial applications for designing new devices.
Clearly, the thin MgO共001兲 barrier-based NR-MTJs
would be expected to have much larger TMR ratio and po-
were observed, respectively. The critical value IC of switch- tential current-driving device applications if both low resis-
ing current between 400 and 550 ␮A for the free tance and low critical switching current density can be
Co60Fe20B20共2.5 nm兲 layer was observed at RT. achieved. Comparing with the conventional Astroid or
Our experiments and further simulations both in Toggle MRAM demo devices developed in the last ten years
sandwich-type nano-ring-shaped MTJs by Wei et al.18 and in using the magnetic field driving as shown in Fig. 9, the novel
spin-valve-type nanoring-shaped MTJs by Wei et al.19 show MRAM design based on STT or nanoring MTJ design using
that two plausible mechanisms are responsible for the the current switching can be expected to open a new way for
switching of the magnetization by the current. First, the spin upgrading the possibility of fabricating the MRAM devices
transfer torque is a dominant factor for the observed switch- with high density, high performance, but low power con-
ing. Second, the pulse dc induces a circular magnetic field sumption.
共Oersted field兲 of smaller than 15 Oe at the outer boundary
of the 100 nm diameter ring, which can affect the magneti-
IV. CONCLUSION
zation states as assisted-switching mechanism. Furthermore,
the observed relative smoothly quadrate R-I curves 共Figs. 4 In conclusion, we demonstrate that the magnetization of
and 6兲 compared to the R-H curve 共Figs. 3 and 5兲 indicate the nanoring-shaped MTJs can be switched by a spin-
that the local pinning plays a less important role for the polarized current. The current density of the order of 6
current-switching magnetization reversal and the spin torque ⫻ 106 A / cm2 is sufficient to switch one onion state to an-
effect is dominant. other in both sandwich-type NR-MTJs and spin-valve-type
The TMR and R vs I loops driver by a pulse spin- NR-MTJs. Our basic investigation on the NR-MTJ materials
polarized dc in the NR-MTJs for the above listed sandwich- and physics offers a possible new approach for developing
type and spin-valve-type NR-MTJs show a good quadrate the MRAM devices with high-density magnetic memory
shape for a memory cell application in MRAM device.20,21
The critical switching current from antiparallel 共parallel兲 to
parallel 共antiparallel兲 states is smaller than 1.0 mA; this cor-
responds to the critical switching current density about JC
= 6 ⫻ 106 A / cm2. The JC values can be expected to further
decrease by using other soft alloy FM layers of NiFe,
CoFeSiB, etc. The TMR ratio and resistance of NR-MTJs
can be conveniently optimized and modified by changing the
FM materials, barrier thickness, ring size, and width to fit the
requirements as memory cell applications for developing
MRAM devices.22 Figure 7 shows a designed prototype of
2 ⫻ 2 nanoring MRAM demo device based on one NR-MTJ
and one transistor structure. The word line, also as the gate
line, plays the role of addressing each bit together with the
cross bit line in the nanoring MRAM design. The high TMR
ratio of over than 80% at RT was obtained by fabricating the
microring-shaped Al–O MTJs with ring-outer diameters of
4.0 ␮m and ring width of 2.0 ␮m,23 which show that further FIG. 8. 共Color online兲 Development of Al–O barrier based MTJs with the
improving the Al–O MTJ properties with the nanoring struc- years using different FM materials.

Author complimentary copy. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://jap.aip.org/jap/copyright.jsp
07E933-6 Han, Wen, and Wei
FIG. 9. 共Color online兲 Roadmap of MRAM demo device development for
both the conventional Astroid or Toggle design using magnetic-field-driving
method and the novel STT-MRAM or nanoring MRAM design using
current-switching method based on one MTJ and one transistor structure.
cells, enhanced thermal stability, and reduced power con-
sumption. Such NR-MTJs together with current-switching
mechanism also can be used in the magnetic logic designs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The project was supported by the State Key Project of
Fundamental Research of Ministry of Science and Technol-
ogy 共MOST兲 共No. 2006CB932200兲, National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China 共NNSFC兲 共No. 10574156兲, and the
Knowledge Innovation Program project of Chinese Academy
of Sciences. X.F.H. gratefully thanks the partial support of
Outstanding Young Researcher Foundation 共NNSFC Nos.
50325104 and 50528101兲 and K. C. Wong Education Foun-
dation, Hong Kong.
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