Diode effect in magnetic tunnel junctions

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how impurities in the insulating barrier of magnetic tunnel junctions affect their I-V characteristics and TMR, revealing diode-like behavior when impurities are asymmetrically positioned.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model showing impurity effects on I-V and TMR, including diode-like behavior due to asymmetric impurity placement.

Findings

Impurities near the Fermi energy significantly enhance current and TMR.

Asymmetric impurity placement causes diode-like I-V characteristics.

Both single and randomly distributed impurities were analyzed.

Abstract

The influence on the I-V characteristics and tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), of impurities embedded into the insulating barrier I separating the two ferromagnetic electrodes F of a magnetic tunnel junction, was theoretically investigated. When the energy of the electron's bound state at the impurity site is close to the Fermi energy, it is shown that the current and TMR are strongly enhanced in the vicinity of the impurity. If the position of the impurity inside the barrier is asymmetric, e.g. closer to one of the interfaces F/I, the I-V characteristic exhibits a quasidiode behavior. The case of a single impurity and of a random distribution of impurities within a plane were both studied.