Manganite-based magnetic tunnel junction with piezoelectric barrier

We report on the fabrication and tunneling characteristics of pulsed-laser deposited LaSrMnO (LSMO)∕PbZrTiO(PZT)∕LSMO∕SrTiO3 multilayers, using PZT layer as a tunnel barrier. The trilayer films show magnetic onset at about 360K with ferromagnetic hysteresis at room temperature. The microscopic studies show that the effective barrier thickness is reduced due to the presence of defects in the barrier region. Our results suggest that the asymmetric deformation of the barrier potential profile induced by the ferroelectric polarization of PZT influences the tunneling characteristics and can be used for electrically controlled readout in quantum-computing schemes.