High Tunnel Magnetoresistance in Mo/CoFe/MgO Magnetic Tunnel Junction: A First-Principles Study

The tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is influenced by heavy metal capping layer due to the interfacial effect. We report a systematic first-principles study on MTJ based on CoFe/MgO with capping layer, demonstrate that TMR ratios are sensitive to capping layer material, and show that TMR in Mo-capped MTJ is three times as high as that in Ta-capped MTJ. Besides, TMR in Mo-capped MTJ remains high at finite voltage bias. By analyzing the transmission spectrum and density of scattering states, we found that coherent transmission of δ state dominates the majority-spin conductance in Mo-capped MTJ, while the resonant tunneling contributes significantly in Ta-capped MTJ. The evolution of TMR for varying MgO and CoFe thickness in Mo-capped MTJ is presented. TMR oscillates as a function of CoFe thickness because of the confined wave function in ferromagnetic layer, while TMR rises with MgO thickness increasing due to the enhanced filtering effect of MgO. This work clarifies the physical mechanism on high TMR in Mo-capped MTJ, which is promising to benefit the design of spintronics device.