Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with a synthetic storage or reference layer: A new route towards Pt- and Pd-free junctions

We report here the development of Pt and Pd-free perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJ) for STT-MRAM applications. We start by studying a p-MTJ consisting of a bottom synthetic Co/Pt reference layer and a synthetic FeCoB/Ru/FeCoB storage layer covered with an MgO layer. We first investigate the evolution of RKKY coupling with Ru spacer thickness in such a storage layer. The coupling becomes antiferromagnetic above 0.5 nm and its strength decreases monotonously with increasing Ru thickness. This contrasts with the behavior of Co-based systems for which a maximum in interlayer coupling is generally observed around 0.8 nm. A thin Ta insertion below the Ru spacer considerably decreases the coupling energy, without basically changing its variation with Ru thickness. After optimization of the non-magnetic and magnetic layer thicknesses, it appears that such a FeCoB/Ru/FeCoB synthetic storage layer sandwiched between MgO barriers can be made stable enough to actually be used as hard reference layer in single or double magnetic tunnel junctions, the storage layer being now a single soft FeCoB layer. Finally, we realize Pt- or Pd-free robust perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions, still keeping the advantage of a synthetic reference layer in terms of reduction of stray fields at small pillar sizes.