Published March 28, 2015 | Version v1
Journal article

The influence of an MgO nanolayer on the planar Hall effect in NiFe films

  • 1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
  • 2. Department of Material Physics and Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083 (China)
  • 3. Department of Physics, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021 (China)

Description

The Planar Hall Effect (PHE) in NiFe films was studied using MgO as the buffer and capping layer to reduce the shunt effect. The thermal annealing was found to be effective in increasing the sensitivity. The sensitivity of the magnetic field reached as high as 865 V/AT in a MgO (3 nm)/NiFe (5 nm)/MgO(3 nm)/Ta(3 nm) structure after annealing at 500 °C for 2 h, which is close to the sensitivity of semiconductor Hall Effect (HE) sensors. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were used to study the sample. The results show that the top crystallization of MgO and NiFe (111) texture were improved by proper annealing. The smooth and clear bottom MgO/NiFe and top NiFe/MgO interface is evident from our data. In addition, the shunt current of Ta was decreased. These combined factors facilitate the improvement of the sensitivity of the magnetic field

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Applied Physics
Journal Volume
117
Journal Issue
12
Journal Page Range
p. 123908-123908.5
ISSN
0021-8979
CODEN
JAPIAU

Optional Information

Notes
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