Reliability enhancement due to in-situ post-oxidation of sputtered MgO barrier in double MgO barrier magnetic tunnel junction

Abstract

We have investigated the effects of in-situ post-oxidation (PO) of a sputtered MgO barrier in a double-MgO-barrier magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and found that the short error rate was significantly reduced, the magnetoresistance (MR) ratio was increased approximately 18%, and the endurance lifetime was extend. In addition, we found that the distribution of breakdown number (a measure of endurance) exhibits trimodal characteristics, which indicates competition between extrinsic and intrinsic failures. This improvement in reliability might be related to the suppression of Fe and Co diffusion to the MgO barrier, as revealed by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) analysis.