Relative strength of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at bottom and top interfaces in Pt/Co/MgO trilayers

In Pt/Co/MgO trilayers, the contribution to the total perpendicular magnetic anisotropy from the bottom Pt/Co interface is significantly greater than that from the top Co/MgO interface at intermediate annealing temperatures. However, the relative contribution is reversed at the highest annealing temperature examined in this study, 400 degrees C. These results indicate that as the annealing temperature increases, the quality of the Pt/Co interface deteriorates owing to the intermixing of Pt and Co, whereas the quality of the Co/MgO interface improves as oxygen atoms, which are interpenetrated into the Co layer during the deposition of MgO, are diffused toward the Co/MgO interface. (C) 2018 The Japan Society of Applied Physics