{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T01:52:10Z","timestamp":1767837130984,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":14,"publisher":"AIP Publishing","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,18]],"date-time":"2017-12-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1513555200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,18]],"date-time":"2017-12-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1513555200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Ministry of Education and Science | Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["SFRH\/BD\/93597\/2013"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SFRH\/BD\/93597\/2013"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["pubs.aip.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Recently, the perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs) arouse great interest because of its unique features in the application of spin-transfer-torque magnetoresistive random access memory (STT-MRAM), such as low switching current density, good thermal stability and high access speed. In this paper, we investigated current induced switching (CIS) in ultrathin MgO barrier p-MTJs with dimension down to 50 nm. We obtained a CIS perpendicular tunnel magnetoresistance (p-TMR) of 123.9% and 7.0 \u03a9\u00b7\u03bcm2 resistance area product (RA) with a critical switching density of 1.4\u00d71010 A\/m2 in a 300 nm diameter junction. We observe that the extrinsic breakdown mechanism dominates, since the resistance of our p-MTJs decreases gradually with the increasing current. From the statistical analysis of differently sized p-MTJs, we observe that the breakdown voltage (Vb) of 1.4 V is 2 times the switching voltage (Vs) of 0.7 V and the breakdown process exhibits two different breakdown states, unsteady and steady state. Using Simmons\u2019 model, we find that the steady state is related with the barrier height of the MgO layer. Furthermore, our study suggests a more efficient method to evaluate the MTJ stability under high bias rather than measuring Vb. In conclusion, we developed well performant p-MTJs for the use in STT-MRAM and demonstrate the mechanism and control of breakdown in nano-scale ultrathin MgO barrier p-MTJs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1063\/1.5007656","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,18]],"date-time":"2017-12-18T17:39:13Z","timestamp":1513618753000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1063\/aip-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Barrier breakdown mechanism in nano-scale perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with ultrathin MgO barrier"],"prefix":"10.1063","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5275-0650","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hua","family":"Lv","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 1 , Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa 2 , Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Diana C.","family":"Leitao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 1 , Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa 2 , Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Zhiwei","family":"Hou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 1 , Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Henan University of Technology 3 , Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, P.R. China"}]},{"given":"Paulo P.","family":"Freitas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 1 , Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6913-6529","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Susana","family":"Cardoso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 1 , Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa 2 , Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4672-8676","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"K\u00e4mpfe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS 4 , 01099 Dresden, Germany"}]},{"given":"Johannes","family":"M\u00fcller","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS 4 , 01099 Dresden, Germany"}]},{"given":"Juergen","family":"Langer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Singulus Technologies AG 5 , 63796 Kahl am Main, Germany"}]},{"given":"Jerzy","family":"Wrona","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Singulus Technologies AG 5 , 63796 Kahl am Main, Germany"}]}],"member":"317","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023080820315916300_c1","first-page":"459","article-title":"A novel nonvolatile memory with spin torque transfer magnetization switching: Spin-ram","volume":"56","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEDM. 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