First-principles prediction of ultralow resistance-area product and high magnetoresistance ratio in magnetic tunnel junction with a rock-salt type ZnO barrier

Abstract

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is a highly sensitive magnetic sensor which is widely used as a read head of a hard disk drive (HDD). In order to increase the areal density of HDDs, it is necessary to reduce the resistance-area product of the MTJ with keeping the high magnetoresistance ratio. Using the first principles calculations, we show that the rock-salt type ZnO (RS-ZnO) based MTJ satisfies these requirements. The results show that the Fe/RS-ZnO/Fe MTJ is a promising candidate for a read head of an ultra-high density HDD with the recording density of 5 Tbit/in2.