A CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction coupled to an in-plane exchange-biased magnetic layer

We report a stack structure which utilizes an in-plane exchange-biased magnetic layer to influence the coercivity of the bottom CoFeB layer in a CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction. By employing a thickness wedge deposition technique, we were able to study various aspects of this stack using vibrating sample magnetometer including: (1) the coupling between two CoFeB layers as a function of MgO thickness; and (2) the coupling between the bottom CoFeB and the in-plane magnetic layer as a function of Ta spacer thickness. Furthermore, modification of the bottom CoFeB coercivity allows one to measure tunneling magnetoresistance and resistance-area product (RA) of CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB in this pseudo-spin-valve format using current-in-plane-tunneling technique, without resorting to (Co/Pt) n or (Co/Pd) n multilayer pinning. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.