Interfacial oxygen migration and its effect on the magnetic anisotropy in Pt/Co/MgO/Pt films

Journal Article · Mon Feb 03 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864184· OSTI ID:22283245

Chen, Xi; Feng, Chun; Liu, Yang; Jiang, Shaolong; Hua Li, Ming; Long Wu, Zheng ^[1]; Yang, Feng ^[2]

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1. Analytical and Testing Center, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China)
2. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249 (China)

This paper reports the interfacial oxygen migration effect and its induced magnetic anisotropy evolution in Pt/Co/MgO/Pt films. During depositing the MgO layer, oxygen atoms from the MgO combine with the neighboring Co atoms, leading to the formation of CoO at the Co/MgO interface. Meanwhile, the films show in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA). After annealing, most of the oxygen atoms in CoO migrate back to the MgO layer, resulting in obvious improvement of Co/MgO interface and the enhancement of effective Co-O orbital hybridization. These favor the evolution of magnetic anisotropy from IMA to perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). The oxygen migration effect is achieved by the redox reaction at the Co/MgO interface. On the contrary, the transfer from IMA to PMA cannot be observed in Pt/Co/Pt films due to the lack of interfacial oxygen migration.

• OSTI ID: 22283245
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANISOTROPY
ANNEALING
COBALT
COBALT OXIDES
INTERFACES
LAYERS
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
OXYGEN
PLATINUM
THIN FILMS