Large resistance change on magnetic tunnel junction based molecular spintronics devices

Molecular bridges covalently bonded to two ferromagnetic electrodes can transform ferromagnetic materials and produce intriguing spin transport characteristics. This paper discusses the impact of molecule induced strong coupling on the spin transport. To study molecular coupling effect the octametallic molecular cluster (OMC) was bridged between two ferromagnetic electrodes of a magnetic tunnel junction (Ta/Co/NiFe/AlOx/NiFe/Ta) along the exposed side edges. OMCs induced strong inter-ferromagnetic electrode coupling to yield drastic changes in transport properties of the magnetic tunnel junction testbed at the room temperature. These OMCs also transformed the magnetic properties of magnetic tunnel junctions. SQUID and ferromagnetic resonance studies provided insightful data to explain transport studies on the magnetic tunnel junction based molecular spintronics devices.