An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
"Negative resistance" errors in four-point measurements of crossed-wire devices
Published
Author(s)
Joshua M. Pomeroy, Holger Grube
Abstract
"Negative resistance" errors due to non-uniform current distributions significantly distort the apparent electronic performance of devices formed with crossed wires, demonstrated here by resistance, magneto-resistance, current-voltage and variable temperature measurements with and without corrections. Crossed wire devices are frequently used in research settings for exploratory systems or rapid process recipe evolution due to the ease of depositing complete devices {\em in situ} through shadows masks. Unfortunately, this geometry suffers from a ``negative resistance'' effect that dominates the measurement when the device resistance is remotely similar to or less than the electrode's resistance. In this paper, we using a finite-element model and experimental data to extend work (by others) to illustrate additional errors when 1) devices are not square in shape 2) when the two wires are not the same resistivity, and 3) when the junction resistance is nonlinear in voltage. Using this knowledge and pre-existing analytical work, a straightforward method for correcting experimental measurments is suggested and evaluated. Finally, we illustrate the importance of correcting the data in magneto-resistance, current-voltage and temperature dependent transport measurements to extract the correct physical interpretation.
Citation
Journal of Applied Physics
Volume
105
Issue
9
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
magnetic tunnel junction, magnetoresistance, finite element model
Pomeroy, J.
and Grube, H.
(2009),
"Negative resistance" errors in four-point measurements of crossed-wire devices, Journal of Applied Physics
(Accessed December 10, 2024)