Characterization of the insulating layer of magnetic tunnel junctions and investigations on bulk ilmenite-hematite and pulsed laser deposited ilmenite-hematite thin films

Magnetoelectronics is a rapidly growing field. Magnetic tunnel junctions are devices which exhibit a large change in electrical resistance under the influence of an applied magnetic field. These devices can be used as magnetic field sensors or magnetic random access memory (MRAM). Work done to lead to better magnetic tunnel junctions is presented here. This work includes a method to characterize the insulating layer of magnetic tunnel junctions using the electrodeposition of copper. The areal density of defects is measured for several samples and used to predict the probability of the electrical breakdown of magnetic tunnel junctions. The results of these measurements were compared with other results on similar samples and other published results.; Magnetic semiconductors are also undergoing increased study. Investigations of the magnetic properties of bulk ilmenite-hematite are discussed. Also presented here are experiments to determine the crystalline structure of pulsed-laser deposited ilmenite-hematite thin films. Four-point resistance measurements were done to determine the electrical properties of the thin films.