No Arabic abstract
We report on the noise performance characteristics of magnetic sensors using both magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and giant magnetoresistance (GMR) elements. Each sensor studied has a notably different noise and detectivity. Of the sensors we measured, those based on GMR multilayers have the lowest noise and detectivity. However, the GMR sensor also has a significantly smaller linear range. To make a direct comparison between sensors we scale the linear operating ranges of each sensor to be the same. This is the phenomenological equivalent of modifying the flux concentration. Upon scaling the low frequency detectivity of the TMR sensors becomes essentially equal to that of the GMR sensor. Using the scaling approach we are able to place the detectivity in the context of other key parameters, namely size and power consumption. Lastly, we use this technique to examine the upper limit for magnetoresistive sensor performance based on a notional MTJ sensor using present record setting TMR values.
In this letter, we present a study of optimized TMR magnetic field sensors as a function of voltage bias. The 1/f low-frequency noise is quantified by the Hooge-like parameter {alpha} which allows to compare the low-frequency behavior of various TMR sensors. The sensitivity as well as the detectivity of the sensor are characterized in the parallel state and at 0 mT. We observe that the sensitivity shows a strong voltage dependence and the noise presents an unexpected decrease, not anticipated by the Hooges law. Moreover, surprisingly, an almost stable detectivity (140-200 nT/sqrt(Hz) at 10 Hz and 15-20 nT/sqrt(Hz) at 1 kHz) as a function of the bias voltage is observed, tending to highlight that the variation of sensitivity and noise are correlated. Even if the I-V curves are strongly non-linear and reflect the different symmetries of the conduction bands channels, the variations in sensitivity and noise seems to depend mainly on the distortion of the MgO barrier due to bias voltage. With a simple model where the normal noise and sensitivity of the TMR sensors are modified by an element having no noise and a parabolic conductance with voltage, we describe the behavior of noise and sensitivity from mV to V.
We have studied magnetic and transport properties on different manganese oxide based compounds exhibiting phase separation: polycrystalline La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 (y=0.3) and La1/2Ca1/2Mn1-zFezO3 (z = 0.05), and single crystals of La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 (y=0.35). Time dependent effects indicate that the fractions of the coexisting phases are dynamically changing in a definite temperature range. We found that in this range the ferromagnetic fraction f can be easily tuned by application of low magnetic fields (< 1 T). The effect is persistent after the field is turned off, thus the field remains imprinted in the actual value of f and can be recovered through transport measurements. This effect is due both to the existence of a true phase separated equilibrium state with definite equilibrium fraction f0, and to the slow growth dynamics. The fact that the same global features were found on different compounds and in polycrystalline and single crystalline samples, suggests that the effect is a general feature of some phase separated media.
Spin valve systems based on the giant magnetoresistive (GMR) effect as used for example in hard disks and automotive applications consist of several functional metallic thin film layers. We have identified by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) two main degradation mechanisms: One is related to oxygen diffusion through a protective cap layer, and the other one is interdiffusion directly at the functional layers of the GMR stack. By choosing a suitable material as cap layer (TaN), the oxidation effect can be suppressed.
The presence of magnetic noise in magnetoresistive-based magnetic sensors degrades their detection limit at low frequencies. In this paper, different ways of stabilizing the magnetic sensing layer to suppress magnetic noise are investigated by applying a pinning field, either by an external field, internally in the stack or by shape anisotropy. We show that these three methods are equivalent, could be combined and that there is a competition between noise suppression and sensitivity reduction, which results in an optimum total pinning field, for which the detection limit of the sensor is improved up to a factor of ten.
Ultra-thin Pt films grown on insulating ferrimagnetic CoFe2O4 (111) epitaxial films display a magnetoresistance upon rotating the magnetization of the magnetic layer. We report here X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) recorded at Pt-L2,3 and Pt-M3 edges. The results indicate that the Pt magnetic moment, if any, is below the detection limit (< 0.001 {mu}$_B$/Pt), thus strongly favoring the view that the presence of CoFe2O4 does not induce the formation of magnetic moments in Pt. Therefore, the observed magnetoresistance cannot be attributed to some sort of proximity-induced magnetic moments at Pt ions and subsequent magnetic-field dependent scattering. It thus follows that either bulk (spin Hall and Inverse spin Hall Effects) or interface (Rashba) spin-orbit related effects dominate the observed magnetoresistance. Furthermore, comparison of bulk magnetization and XMCD data at (Fe,Co)-L2,3 edges suggests the presence of some spin disorder in the CoFe2O4 layer which may be relevant for the observed anomalous non-saturating field-dependence of spin Hall magnetoresistance.