Effect of annealing on the magnetic tunnel junction with Co/Pt perpendicular anisotropy ferromagnetic multilayers

Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs) with tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) as high as 14.7% at room temperature were fabricated. The continuous film and pMTJs with Co/Pt multilayer magnetic electrodes and AlOx tunnel barrier were annealed at different temperatures and the effect of annealing on their properties was investigated. The hysteresis loops and X-ray reflectivity measurement show that the interdiffusion of Co and Pt atoms is slight when annealed below 523 K. However, the patterned magnetic tunnel junction gets TMR ratio from 12.3% to the maximum value of 14.7% after annealing at 483 K for 1 h. c 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3358249]