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Spin torque, tunnel-current spin polarization and magnetoresistance in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

G. D. Fuchs, J. A. Katine, S. I. Kiselev, D. Mauri, K. S. Wooley, D. C. Ralph, R. A. Buhrman

cond-mat.mes-hallarXiv:cond-mat/0510786

Abstract

We examine the spin torque (ST) response of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with ultra-thin MgO tunnel barrier layers to investigate the relationship between the spin-transfer torque and the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) under finite bias. We find that the spin torque per unit current exerted on the free layer decreases by less than 10% over a bias range where the TMR decreases by over 40%. We examine the implications of this result for various spin-polarized tunneling models and find that it is consistent with magnetic-state-dependent effective tunnel decay lengths.

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