Tailoring the properties of a magnetic tunnel junction to be used as a magnetic field sensor

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) can be used as an effective magnetic field sensor thank to its high magnetoresistance ratio. To be used as a magnetic field sensor in different applications, the possibility of tuning the performance of the MTJ is important. Different means of tuning, such as voltage and magnetic field biasing, can be used. In this work, an external magnetic field from a permanent magnet was used to bias the sensing layer of a MTJ along its hard axis, and the effect of the biasing on the sensitivity, detection limit, and hysteresis of the MTJ was investigated. The experiments showed that the hysteresis of the MTJ languished away at a certain applied magnetic field. Moreover, the sensitivity and noise level decreased, whereas the detection limit increased with increasing bias field strength. The motivation of this experiment is not only to find a power- and cost-effective method of tuning the MTJ, but also to study what happens with the sensing layer, and with electron transport within the MTJ when an external magnetic field is applied