Enhanced Thermal Stability in Perpendicular Top-Pinned Magnetic Tunnel Junction With Synthetic Antiferromagnetic Free Layers

Abstract

Synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) free layers consisting of [Co (0.3 nm)/Pd (0.7 nm)] <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sub> /Ru/Ta/CoFeB were investigated for use in the free layers of top-pinned magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). We found that interlayer exchange coupling properly provides thermal stability when the saturation magnetization of the CoPd layer is less than that of the CoFeB layer. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the thermal stability factor of the top-pinned MTJ with [Co (0.3 nm)/Pd (0.7 nm)] <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n=1/</sub> Co (0.3 nm)/Ru/Ta/CoFeB- SAF free layers was improved without increasing the intrinsic switching current.