Intrinsic spin noise in MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

F.  Delgado; K.  Lopez; R.  Ferreira; J.  Fernández-Rossier

doi:10.1063/1.4791594

Abstract

We consider two intrinsic sources of noise in ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors based on MgO magnetic tunnel junctions, coming both from ²⁵

Mg

nuclear spins (I = 5/2, 10% natural abundance) and S = 1 Mg-vacancies. While nuclear spins induce noise peaked in the MHz frequency range, the vacancies noise peaks in the GHz range. We find that the nuclear noise in submicron devices has a similar magnitude than the 1/f noise, while the vacancy-induced noise dominates in the GHz range. Interestingly, the noise spectrum under a finite magnetic field gradient may provide spatial information about the spins in the MgO layer.

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