Fabrication and Characterization of Hybrid Tunnel Magnetoresistance Structures with Embedded Self-Assembled Nanoparticle Templates
P. Siffalovic a, E. Majkova a, L. Chitu a, Y. Halahovets a, M. Jergel a, R. Senderak a, S. Luby a, M. Weis b, A. Satka c, B. Szymański d, F. Stobiecki d, A. Timmann e and S.V. Roth e
a Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 84511 Bratislava, Slovakia,
b Department of Physics, Slovak Technical University, Ilkovicova 3, 81219 Bratislava, Slovakia
c International Laser Center, Ilkovicova 3, 81219 Bratislava, Slovakia
d Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, M. Smoluchowskiego 17, 60-179 Poznań, Poland
e HASYLAB/DESY, Notkestr. 86, 22603 Hamburg, Germany
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We report on an incorporation of self-assembled templates of superparamagnetic Fe-O nanoparticles into tunnel magnetoresistance devices. We fabricated a multilayer stack composed of the following layer sequence: Cr/Au/Co/NP/Co/Cu on Si(100) substrate where NP stands for a self-assembled layer of nanoparticles deposited by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. The X-ray reflectivity and grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering were employed to study the layers thicknesses and interface morphology in each preparation step. In particular, the grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering was measured before and after the nanoparticle incorporation as well as on the complete tunnel magnetoresistance stack. In this way, in-depth morphology profile during subsequent preparation steps was obtained. We demonstrate that X-ray analysis of the deposited tunnel magnetoresistance stack is essential for successful fabrication of novel hybrid devices consisting of self-assembled nanoparticles.
DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.115.332
PACS numbers: 61.05.cf, 61.46.Df