Morphology and magnetoresistance of Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al-based tunnelling junctions

Some ferromagnetic Heusler compounds are theoretically predicted to be half metallic materials, i.e. to be characterized by a huge spin polarization at the Fermi energy. We investigate the correlations between junction preparation conditions, morphology and transport properties of planar MgO/Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al/AlOx/Co/CoOx/Pt tunnelling junctions. Epitaxial Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al thin films were deposited by dc and rf magnetron sputtering on different buffer layers (Cr, Fe, MgO) on MgO(1 0 0) substrates. By RHEED, LEED and in situ STM investigations different surface morphologies were observed. Atomically flat surfaces with Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al unit cell sized steps (B2 structure) were obtained by rf sputtering on MgO substrates with e-beam evaporated MgO buffer layers. However, this morphology results in AlOx tunnelling barriers with improper wetting properties.