Magnetic Force Microscopy Revealing Molecule Impact on Magnetic Tunnel Junction Based Molecular Devices at Room Temperature

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that bridging organometallic molecules between ferromagnetic electrodes in magnetic tunnel junctions significantly alters magnetic properties at room temperature, impacting device transport and stability.

Contribution

It reveals how molecules influence magnetic electrodes in tunnel junctions, enabling room-temperature molecular spintronics device development.

Findings

Molecules impact large areas of ferromagnetic electrodes at room temperature.

Magnetic resonance supports MFM results showing molecular effects.

Molecular influence stabilizes tunnel junction current by six orders of magnitude.

Abstract

Commercially successful magnetic tunnel junction can harness the unmatched capabilities of molecular device elements by solving decade-old fabrication issues. Utilization of magnetic tunnel junction as a testbed for molecules also enables unprecedented magnetic studies of molecular spintronics devices. This paper utilizes magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to vividly show that organometallic molecules when bridged between two ferromagnetic electrodes along the magnetic tunnel junction edges, transformed the magnetic electrodes itself. Molecules impacted several hundred-micron areas of ferromagnetic electrodes at room temperature. Complementary, magnetic resonance and magnetometer studies supported the dramatic MFM results. Molecule induced changes in the magnetic electrodes impacted the transport of the magnetic tunnel junction and stabilized as much as six orders smaller current at room temperature. Magnetic tunnel junction based molecular devices can be a gateway to a vast range of commercially viable futuristic logic and memory devices that are controlled by the molecular quantum states near room temperature.