Magnetic tunnel junctions - principles and applications

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have received much attention because of their potential use as non-volatile memory storage cells in magnetic random access memory and as advanced read sensors in hard disk drives. These applications necessitate stringent requirements on the materials and structure of the magnetic tunnel junctions. This paper briefly describes one aspect of the numerous recent developments in MTJ materials. In particular, we discuss structures with improved magnetic properties via insertion of ultra-thin non-magnetic nano-layers within the MTJ. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.