Investigation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in CoFeMnSi based heterostructures

In this work, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is realized in MgAl2O4(MAO)/CoFeMnSi(CFMS)/MgAl2O4/Ti heterostructures annealed at 300 ? and 400 ?. We show that interfacial PMA is very responsive to the annealing temperature and the CFMS layer thickness (t(CFMS)). A large PMA is achieved for t(CFMS) = 2.0 nm. An improvement in the out-of-plane saturation magnetization (M-s(& BOTTOM;)) with PMA is found to get remarkably stimulated by the bottom MgAl2O4/CFMS interface. Besides, a uniaxial PMA is observed for an as-deposited stack with t(CFMS) & LE; 1.5 nm. Annealing at 400 ? significantly promoted adequate interfacial oxidation with the improved thermal stability of the heterostructure. Through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the formation of Co-O bonds occurring as a result of the hybridization of Co-3d(Z)(2) and O-2p(Z) orbitals at the interface shared by CFMS with MAO is identified as the microscopic origin of the observed PMA in these stacks. These findings indicate that the CFMS and MAO-based structures have immense potential for the next generation spintronic devices.

Automated summary

In this study, researchers achieved perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in MgAl2O4(MAO)/CoFeMnSi(CFMS)/MgAl2O4/Ti heterostructures annealed at different temperatures and with varying CFMS layer thicknesses. The interfacial PMA was found to be highly responsive to the annealing temperature and CFMS layer thickness. Additionally, researchers observed uniaxial PMA under specific conditions. XPS analysis identified the formation of Co-O bonds at the CFMS-MAO interface as the microscopic origin of the observed PMA.