Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions with CoFe/Pd Multilayer Electrodes and an MgO Barrier

We studied the magnetic and magnetoresistance characteristics of pseudospin-valve magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) based on CoFe/Pd multilayer electrodes with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and an MgO barrier. The MTJs at annealing temperature (
T

_a
) of 473 K showed a tunnel-magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of 1.5%. An fcc (111)-oriented texture of the bottom and top Co
₉₀
Fe
₁₀
/Pd multilayer electrodes, together with an imperfectly crystallized MgO, were revealed by cross-sectional TEM images. The TMR properties of perpendicular MTJs with a Co
₂₀
Fe
₆₀
B
₂₀
or Co
₅₀
Fe
₅₀
layer inserted between the CoFe/Pd multilayer electrodes and the MgO barrier were also studied. The TMR ratio with Co
₂₀
Fe
₆₀
B
₂₀
insertion was 1.7% at
T

_a
= 473 K and monotonically decreased at
T

_a
over 523 K. The TMR ratio with Co
₅₀
Fe
₅₀
insertion increased up to 3% at
T

_a
= 573 K and then decreased to 0.4% at
T

_a
= 598 K. The influence of the Pd layer on CoFeB was studied by using the simplified structures of Pd/CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB/Pd and Ta/CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB/Ta with inplane anisotropy. A former structure with Pd resulted in reduced TMR ratio which decreases with increasing
T

_a
, whereas MTJs with a Ta-based structure showed a monotonic increase of a TMR ratio. The low TMR ratio observed in Pd-containing structures appears to result from crystallization of CoFeB in an unfavorable crystal orientation.