Magnon excitation and temperature dependent transport properties in magnetic tunnel junctions with Heusler compound electrodes

Abstract

Magnetic tunnel junctions were prepared with the Heusler compounds Co 2FeAl, Co 2FeSi, and Co 2MnSi as the soft magnetic electrode. The Co 2MnSi electrodes had a multilayer design that used either the Co 2FeAl or the Co 2FeSi compound as a buffer material. Pinned Co-Fe was used as the hard reference electrode. The electronic transport characteristics were analyzed by tunneling spectroscopy. The dependence of sample properties on the buffer material was of interest, especially the gap in the minority density of states of the Heusler electrode. The temperature dependence of the transport properties was also investigated. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.