Pt/Co/oxide and oxide/Co/Pt electrodes for perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions

This letter presents a study of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in oxide/Co/Pt structures, which could constitute the upper magnetic electrode of magnetic tunnel junctions. The growth of cobalt layers on SiO2 substrates shows that all 0.6 nm thick Co films are superparamagnetic, whereas perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is obtained for 1.5 nm films after annealing. Co layers grown on various Al and Mg oxides prepared by sputtering also exhibit perpendicular magnetic anisotropy after annealing. Combined with inverse Pt/Co(CoFeB)/oxide stackings, these structures allow preparing tunnel junctions with thicker magnetic electrodes and much better thermal stability than those based on standard Pt/Co multilayers.