Influence of barrier thickness on Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8/BiFeO3/Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8 multiferroic tunnel junctions

Abstract Effect of antiferromagnetic barrier layer (BiFeO 3 ) thickness on tunneling properties in Ni 50.3 Mn 36.9 Sb 12.8 /BiFeO 3 /Ni 50.3 Mn 36.9 Sb 12.8 multiferroic tunnel junction fabricated on Si substrates had been thoroughly investigated. The exchange bias phenomenon is also found to be present with the thickness of barrier layer larger than 10 nm, exhibiting prominent shift in MH loop of Ni 50.3 Mn 36.9 Sb 12.8 /BiFeO 3 /Ni 50.3 Mn 36.9 Sb 12.8 trilayer. The value of TEMR ratio increases with increase in barrier layer thickness for thickness below 10 nm and decreases above it. These finding may be helpful towards novel reconfigurable logic spintronics architectures in next generation electrically controlled random access memory devices.