Probing a Device's Active Atoms |
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| Authors: | Michał Studniarek Ufuk Halisdemir Filip Schleicher Beata Taudul Etienne Urbain Samy Boukari Marie Hervé Charles‐Henri Lambert Abbass Hamadeh Sebastien Petit‐Watelot Olivia Zill Daniel Lacour Loïc Joly Fabrice Scheurer Guy Schmerber Victor Da Costa Anant Dixit Pierre André Guitard Manuel Acosta Florian Leduc Fadi Choueikani Edwige Otero Wulf Wulfhekel François Montaigne Elmer Nahuel Monteblanco Jacek Arabski Philippe Ohresser Eric Beaurepaire Wolfgang Weber Mébarek Alouani Michel Hehn Martin Bowen |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France;2. Synchrotron SOLEIL, L'Orme des Merisiers, Gif‐sur‐Yvette, France;3. Physikalisches Institut, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany;4. Institut Jean Lamour UMR 7198 CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Vandoeuvre les Nancy Cedex, France;5. Service de Physique de l'Etat Condensé, CEA‐IRAMIS‐SPEC (CNRS‐MPPU‐URA 2464) CEA‐Saclay, Gif‐sur‐Yvette Cedex, France |
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| Abstract: | ![]()
Materials science and device studies have, when implemented jointly as “operando” studies, better revealed the causal link between the properties of the device's materials and its operation, with applications ranging from gas sensing to information and energy technologies. Here, as a further step that maximizes this causal link, the paper focuses on the electronic properties of those atoms that drive a device's operation by using it to read out the materials property. It is demonstrated how this method can reveal insight into the operation of a macroscale, industrial‐grade microelectronic device on the atomic level. A magnetic tunnel junction's (MTJ's) current, which involves charge transport across different atomic species and interfaces, is measured while these atoms absorb soft X‐rays with synchrotron‐grade brilliance. X‐ray absorption is found to affect magnetotransport when the photon energy and linear polarization are tuned to excite Fe? O bonds parallel to the MTJ's interfaces. This explicit link between the device's spintronic performance and these Fe? O bonds, although predicted, challenges conventional wisdom on their detrimental spintronic impact. The technique opens interdisciplinary possibilities to directly probe the role of different atomic species on device operation, and shall considerably simplify the materials science iterations within device research. |
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| Keywords: | atom probe microelectronic devices operando measurements spintronics X‐ray absorption spectroscopy |
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