Density of states effects in nickel based magnetic tunnel junctions

In the present work we report a study on two types of MTJs; one which uses Ni as one electrode and another using a high nickel content alloy for the electrodes. Our success with nickel stems from its large variation in the density of states in both the majority and minority spin bands near the Fermi energy. These large variations make it an appealing system to observe density of states effects. In what follows we will discuss our MTJ preparation techniques followed by a presentation of the experimental results. This is followed by a comparison of the experimental data to a simple theory of elastic tunneling which utilizes the density of states of the MTJ electrodes.