Research articles Enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Pd/Co2MnSi/Co3O4/Pd multilayer structure

The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of the Pd/Co2MnSi(CMS)/Co3O4 and Pd/CMS/Pd/CMS/Co3O4/Pd multilayers has been studied in this paper. The Pd/CMS/Co3O4 is a heavy metal (HM)/ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) oxide structure that has triple interfacial effects, which is HM/FM, FM/OX and FM/AFM. For Pd (6 nm)/CMS (t nm)/Co3O4 (0.6 nm) /Pd (6 nm) structure, the maximum magnetic anisotropy energy density (K-eff) is 0.583 Merg/cm(3) at t = 6 nm and the PMA can be maintained with the thickness of the CMS layer in a range of 3.5-8 nm. When the thickness of the Co3O4 layer varied from 0 to 1.3 nm, the multilayer structure also has PMA with 6 nm CMS layer. Inserting a Pd layer in the CMS to form Pd/CMS/Pd/CMS/Co3O4/Pd structure can enhance the PMA and the saturated magnetization. The maximum K-eff of the Pd/CMS/Pd/CMS/Co3O4/Pd structure is 0.680 Merg/cm(3) by inserting a 0.8 nm Pd layer, which is 15% larger than samples without inserting Pd layer in the CMS. The crystallization quality of Co3O4 relates to the power of sputtering deposition and furthermore affects the flatness of the interface and PMA of the multilayer film.

Automated summary

The study found that inserting a Pd layer into the CMS can enhance the PMA and saturated magnetization. By adjusting the thickness of the CMS and Co3O4 layers, PMA can be maintained. Furthermore, the crystallization quality of Co3O4 affects the flatness of the interface and PMA of the multilayer film.