Patent ID: 7534626

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming a MgO tunnel barrier on a surface of an underlayer; forming an overlayer on the MgO tunnel barrier to construct a spintronic element, with one of the underlayer and the overlayer including a layer of semiconductor material, and the other one of the underlayer and the overlayer including a layer of magnetic material selected from the group consisting of ferromagnetic materials and ferrimagnetic materials; and annealing the MgO tunnel barrier at a temperature selected to improve tunneling characteristics of the MgO tunnel barrier, wherein i) the MgO tunnel barrier is sandwiched between the underlayer and the overlayer, and ii) the underlayer, the MgO tunnel barrier, and the overlayer are configured to enable spin-polarized charge carrier transport between the layer of semiconductor material and the layer of magnetic material, said forming a MgO tunnel barrier including: depositing Mg onto the surface of the underlayer to form a Mg layer thereon; and directing additional Mg, in the presence of oxygen, towards the Mg layer to form a MgO tunnel barrier in contact with the underlayer, the oxygen reacting with the additional Mg and the Mg layer.