Conductive alloy layer in magnetic memory devices and methods of fabrication

A memory device includes a bottom electrode, a conductive layer such as an alloy including ruthenium and tungsten above the bottom electrode and a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) on the conductive layer. In an embodiment, the pMTJ includes a fixed magnet, a tunnel barrier above the fixed magnet and a free magnet on the tunnel barrier. The memory device further includes a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) structure that is ferromagnetically coupled with the fixed magnet to pin a magnetization of the fixed magnet. The conductive layer has a crystal texture which promotes high quality FCC crystal texture in the SAF structure and improves perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the fixed magnet.