Study of Ni78Fe22/Alq3/Ni78Fe22 nanoscale junction

devices utilizing thin-film edges

Robin MSISKA (robin@es.hokudai.ac.jp)
Laboratory of Nanostructured Functional Materials (Nishii Laboratory)
Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University
April 16, 2018

1 Introduction
My research is focused on spintronics which is an emerging research field which utilizes not only the
charge but also the spin degree of freedom of electrons in solid-state systems. In particular, I am research-
ing organic spintronics. The importance of organic semiconductors (OSCs) has increased considerably
over the years due to a long spin relaxation time of spin-polarized carriers in organic molecules, indicating
that the spin polarization of the carriers can be maintained for a very long time[2][3]. This property is
attributed to a very low spin-orbit (SO) coupling in organic molecules; carbon has a small atomic number
(Z), and the strength of the SO interaction is proportional to Z4 . The weakness of the spin-scattering
mechanism enables us to observe a large magnetoresistance (MR) in organic spin valve junctions, which
consist of two ferromagnetic layers separated by an organic molecular layer. Recent work demon-
strates that a large MR of 300% has been observed at 2 K in Co/tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum
(Alq3 )/La0.7 Sr0.3 MnO3 nanoscale junctions[1]. Thus, a giant MR could be obtained in OSCs-based
nanoscale junctions.

2 Device Fabrication
In my research, I fabricate OSCs-based nanoscale junctions and investigate their spin transport prop-
erties in order to observe a large MR effect. I make these devices using thin-film edges, in which Alq3
molecules are sandwiched between crossed edges of two Ni78 Fe22 (permalloy) thin films, where the junc-
tion area is determined by precisely controlling film thickness (Fig. 1). Typical junction areas produced
are about 10×10 to 35×35 nm2 by films of thickness 10 to 35 nm. These Ni78 Fe22 /Alq3 /Ni78 Fe22
nanoscale junctions are created without conventional lithographic techniques.

Figure 1: Schematic of the SQC

device. Figure 2: SQC device fabrication.

The fabrication method of SQC devices is shown in Fig. 2. Firstly, Ni78 Fe22 thin films are deposited on
LSP glass substrates (Tg = 503◦ C, 10×10×2 mm3 ) by ion beam sputtering under a magnetic field of 400
Oe. Au films with a thickness of 14 nm are then deposited on the edges of each Ni78 Fe22 film. Then, LSP
glass substrates with the same composition are thermally pressed onto the fabricated Ni78 Fe22 thin films
in a N2 atmosphere at pressures of 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 MPa and at a temperature of 513◦ C . Microstructure and
interfacial features of the samples are examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM; JEOL,
JEM-ARM200F) and transmission electron diffraction (TED). Magnetization curves of Ni78 Fe22 films are

1
measured by focused magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE; BH-PI920-HU, NEOARK) under a magnetic
field of up to 1 kOe at room temperature. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and MR curves of
the junctions are measured by a four-probe method at low temperature and room temperature.

3 Discussion
To observe an MR effect, it is necessary to have a clear difference in coercivity between the two
Ni78 Fe22 thin films, as well as to observe nanoscale electrical conduction through Alq3 . Fig. 3 shows the
magnetization curves of Ni78 Fe22 thin films with a thickness of 17 nm before and after pressing. The
coercive force increases with increasing pressure during the thermal pressing process. The enhancement
of the coercive force can be explained by the two-dimensional random anisotropy model. Namely, the
coercive force increases due to the increase of the grain sizes of Ni78 Fe22 thin films. Therefore, a coer-
civity difference is realized by controlling the pressure. Thus, it is expected that this difference leads to
the realization of parallel and anti-parallel magnetization configurations in SQC devices. Fig. 6 shows
the cross-sectional TEM images and TED pattern of LSP-glass/Ni78 Fe22 /LSP-glass. This indicates the
successful formation of a Ni78 Fe22 thin film with smooth and clear interfaces over areas exceeding 1 µm.
The TED pattern shows clear spots, indicating the sample possessed a highly oriented crystalline struc-
ture. Fig. 4 shows I-V characteristics of a Ni78 Fe22 edge. Ohmic characteristics were observed. This
means unoxidezed Ni78 Fe22 edges were obtained. On the other hand, from the observation of the I-V
characteristics of Ni78 Fe22 edge through Alq3 , we see that the experimental results are in good agreement
with the calculation results performed using a space charge limited current (SCLC) model. This means
that nanoscale electronic transport through Alq3 without trap levels was successfully observed. Finally,
Alq3 with a thickness of 20 nm was sandwiched between two LSP-glass/Ni78 Fe22 /LSP-glass structures
pressed under a pressure of 0.25 and 1.0 MPa, respectively to create an SQC device. The I-V character-
istics of this SQC device are shown in Fig. 5. Ohmic characteristics with a small resistance of 36 Ω were
observed. Assuming quantized conductance, the resistance was calculated to be 42 Ω from an estimation
of the number of conductance channels. This calculated value is very close to the experimental value of
36 Ω. So can be concluded that quantized conductance is successfully observed in these devices. These
results indicate that the observation of a large MR effect can be expected in SQC devices.
It is worth noting that devices with junction area < 40 × 40 nm2 operate in the ballistic regime.
In the ballistic regime, the resistance R (= 1/G) is inversely proportional to the junction area S (∝
the channel number N), as indicated by Landauer’s equation G = N T G0 , where T is the transmission
probability and G0 is the quantized conductance. MOKE data and XPS spectra reveal that the Alq3
is strongly bonded to the surface of Ni78 Fe22 . This bonding is likely due to chemisorptions of the Alq3
via charge transfer, such as organic-metal oxide complexes. This changes the density of states at the
interface states [4], which in turn alter surface magnetisation by changing spin polarisation. Fig. 7
illustrates the changing reduction of the LUMO level due to this surface interaction, which facilitates
ballistic transport.

Figure 3: Magnetization Figure 4: I-V characteris- Figure 5: I-V characteristics of

curves of Ni78 Fe22 . tics of the Ni78 Fe22 edge. SQC device.

Figure 7: Schematic band diagram

Figure 6: TEM & TED images of of the SQC devices, before and after
LSP-glass/Ni78 Fe22 /LSP-glass. contact.

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