Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2016
Surface smoothing of Ru used as underlayer of magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJ)in magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) was carried out with gascluster ion beam (GCIB) in order to improve device characteristics. For Rufilms, surface smoothing with 5 kV N2-GCIB irradiation was effective,and CoFe films deposited on smoothed Ru surface also showed smooth surface. Fromthe hysteresis loop measurements of MTJ formed on smoothed Ru withN2-GCIB, it showed improvement of inter-layer coupling magnetic field(Hin) with decreasing the surface roughness of underlayer Ru. Itis expected that surface roughness of MgO in MTJ was also improved by smoothingof underlayer Ru with N2-GCIB.