Interface characterization of Co2MnGe/Rh2CuSn Heusler multilayers

Abstract

All-Heusler multilayer structures have been investigated by means of high kinetic x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, aiming to address the amount of disorder and interface diffusion induced by annealing of the multilayer structure. The studied multilayers consist of ferromagnetic Co${}_2$MnGe and non-magnetic Rh${}_2$CuSn layers with varying thicknesses. We find that diffusion begins already at comparably low temperatures between 200 ${}^{\circ }$C and 250 ${}^{\circ }$C, where Mn appears to be most prone to diffusion. We also find evidence for a 4 Å thick magnetically dead layer that, together with the identified interlayer diffusion, are likely reasons for the small magnetoresistance found for current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magneto-resistance devices based on this all-Heusler system.

References in corpus (2)

• Half-metallic ferromagnets: From band structure to many-body effects
• Complex magnetic behavior and high spin polarization in Fe(3-x)Mn(x)Si alloys

Cited by in corpus (1)

• High T${}_C$ ferromagnetic inverse Heusler alloys: A comparative study of Fe${}_2$RhSi and Fe${}_2$RhGe