CPC H10N 50/01 (2023.02) [G11C 11/161 (2013.01); H01F 10/3272 (2013.01); H01F 10/3286 (2013.01); H10N 50/10 (2023.02); H10N 50/80 (2023.02); H10N 50/85 (2023.02)] | 20 Claims |
1. A method of making a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) element, comprising:
forming a magnetic pinning structure, wherein forming the magnetic pinning structure comprises:
forming a perpendicular synthetic antiferromagnetic (pSAF) stack,
forming an oxide buffer (OB) layer on top of the pSAF stack, and
forming a cube-textured reference layer, wherein forming the cube-textured reference layer comprises depositing a texture starting (TS) layer on top of the oxide buffer layer;
depositing a tunnel barrier layer on top of the magnetic pinning structure;
depositing a magnetic free layer on top of the tunnel barrier layer and having a magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to a film surface and having a variable magnetization direction; and
further comprising: performing a tensile strain quenching (TSQ) process immediately after at least one of depositing the TS layer and depositing the tunnel barrier layer,
wherein performing said TSQ process induces a BCC or L10 superlattice structure and a (100) crystal texture in the TS layer.
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