Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at the interface between ultrathin Fe film and MgO studied by angular-dependent x-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Journal Article · Mon Sep 22 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896290· OSTI ID:22350755

Okabayashi, J. ^[1]; Koo, J. W.; Mitani, S. ^[2]; Sukegawa, H. ^[2]; Takagi, Y.; Yokoyama, T. ^[3]

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1. Research Center for Spectrochemistry, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan)
2. National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba 305-0047 (Japan)
3. Institute of Molecular Science, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585 (Japan)

Interface perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in ultrathin Fe/MgO (001) has been investigated using angular-dependent x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). We found that anisotropic orbital magnetic moments deduced from the analysis of XMCD contribute to the large PMA energies, whose values depend on the annealing temperature. The large PMA energies determined from magnetization measurements are related to those estimated from the XMCD and the anisotropic orbital magnetic moments through the spin-orbit interaction. The enhancement of anisotropic orbital magnetic moments can be explained mainly by the hybridization between the Fe 3d{sub z}{sup 2} and O 2p{sub z} states.

• OSTI ID: 22350755
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 105; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANISOTROPY
ANNEALING
FILMS
INTERFACES
L-S COUPLING
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
MAGNETIC CIRCULAR DICHROISM
MAGNETIC MOMENTS
MAGNETIZATION
X RADIATION