Investigation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Pt/Co20Fe60B20/Pt multi-layer structures

Ludovico Cestarollo, Karthik Srinivasan, Amal El-Ghazaly

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Multi-layers of Co20Fe60B20 and Pt with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropies (PMA), comparable to those obtained with the more widely utilized Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructures, are reported. CoFeB thickness of approximately 0.8 nm is necessary to maximize PMA in Pt/CoFeB/Pt. Strong PMA can only be obtained upon careful tuning of the material the CoFeB layer is deposited on. Specifically, a Pt layer thickness of at least 3 nm is necessary to obtain PMA in CoFeB due to the emergence of (111) texture in thicker Pt films. The absence of a magnetic dead layer at the interface between CoFeB and Pt (as opposed to an interface between CoFeB and Ta) maximizes the amount of magnetic content per unit volume. Furthermore, this study investigates the magnetic properties of multi-layer structures where four CoFeB layers are deposited between Pt and Pt/Ta/Pt buffers. While the out-of-plane remanent magnetization of the structures is low, they present small nucleation field down to 30 Oe and large anisotropy energy in the range of 106 erg/cc.

Original languageEnglish
Article number169825
JournalJournal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Volume562
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Nov 2022

Keywords

  • CoFeB
  • Magnetic properties
  • Magnetic thin films
  • PMA
  • Pt
  • Sputtering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Investigation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Pt/Co20Fe60B20/Pt multi-layer structures'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this