Double-barrier magnetic tunnel junctions with enhanced tunnel magnetoresistance

Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio is a key parameter characterizing the performance of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), and a large TMR ratio is essential for the practical application of it. Generally, the traditional solutions to increasing the TMR ratio are to choose different material combinations as the ferromagnetic (FM) leads and nonmagnetic tunnel barrier. In this work, we study an architecture of MTJs of “FM/barrier/FM/barrier/FM” with double barriers, in contrast to the traditional single barrier structure “FM/barrier/FM.” We first analytically show that double barrier MTJ will generally have much higher TMR ratio than the single barrier MTJ and then substantiate it with the well-known example of “Fe/MgO/Fe” MTJ. Based on density functional calculations combined with nonequilibrium Green's function technique for quantum transport study, in the single barrier “Fe/MgO/Fe” MTJ, the TMR ratio is obtained as 122%, while in the double barrier “Fe/MgO/Fe/MgO/Fe” MTJ, it is greatly increased to 802%, suggesting that double barrier design can greatly enhance the TMR and can be taken into consideration in the design of MTJs.