Strength of Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy at Bottom and Top Interfaces in [Pt/Co/Pt] Trilayers

Author

Lee, T.Y. ; Won, Y.C. ; Son, D.S. ; Lim, S.H. ; Lee, S.-R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Nano Semicond. Eng., Korea Univ., Seoul, South Korea

Volume

5

fYear

2014

fDate

2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

The individual strengths of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) at the bottom and top interfaces in sputtered [Pt/Co/Pt] trilayers are determined. The PMA strength from the top Co/Pt interface is significantly weaker than that from the bottom Pt/Co interface, indicating a similar difference in the interface quality. The contribution to the total anisotropy strength from the top Co/Pt interface increases with decreasing top Pt layer thickness; for a stack of Co thickness 1 nm, the contribution is only 10% for a top Pt layer of thickness 3.0 nm, but it increases to 32% for a Pt layer of thickness 0.2 nm.

Keywords

cobalt; interface magnetism; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; platinum; PMA; Pt-Co-Pt; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; size 0.2 nm; size 1 nm; size 3 nm; total anisotropy strength; trilayers; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Annealing; Magnetic multilayers; Nonhomogeneous media; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Sputtering; Magnetism in solids; Pt/Co/Pt trilayers; interfacial anisotropy; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; thickness effects;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1949-307X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMAG.2014.2321350

Filename

6816093