Novel materials for magnetic tunnel junctions [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Christian Kaiser

Novel materials for magnetic tunnel junctionsVon der Fakult¨at fu¨r Mathematik, Informatik undNaturwissenschaften der Rheinisch-Westf¨alischen TechnischenHochschule Aachen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einesDoktors der Naturwissenschaften genehmigte Dissertationvorgelegt vonDiplom–PhysikerChristian Kaiseraus GevelsbergBerichter: Universit¨atsprofessor Dr. sc. nat. Gernot Gu¨ntherodtProf. Dr. Stuart S. P. Parkin, IBM Almaden Research Center undApplied Physics Department, Stanford UniversityTag der mu¨ndlichen Pru¨fung: 21. Dezember 2004Diese Dissertation ist auf den Internetseiten derHochschulbibliothek online verfu¨gbarAcknowledgmentsI wish to thank Stuart Parkin for giving me the opportunity to work in hisgroup. His guidance on scientific issues was invaluable. I am grateful to Ger-notGu¨ntherodtforsupervisingmythesisandsupportingmethroughouttheyearsalthough most of my research projects were “IBM confidential” until the very lastminute.Thanks to the other members of Stuart’s team: Alex Panchula for teaching mehowtomakesamples,KevinRocheforkeepingtheequipmentupandrunning,XinJiang for helpful discussions, Brian Hughes for fine Scottish humor, See-Hun Yangfor fabricating a tremendous amount of samples, Mahesh Samant for sanity andreason, and Luc Thomas for his hospitality during my stay at Versailles. GuenoleJan, Andreas Ney, and Manny Hernandez were good friends who made my timehere most enjoyable.