Interdiffusion in epitaxial ultrathin Co2FeAl/MgO heterostructures with interface-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Abstract

The structures of epitaxial ultrathin Co2FeAl/MgO(001) heterostructures relating to the interface-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) were investigated using scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. We found that Al atoms from the Co2FeAl layer significantly interdiffuse into MgO, forming an Al-deficient Co-Fe-Al/Mg-Al-O structure near the Co2FeAl/MgO interface. This atomic replacement may play an additional role for enhancing PMA, which is consistent with the observed large perpendicular orbital magnetic moments of Fe atoms at the interface. This work suggests that control of interdiffusion at ferromanget/barrier interfaces is critical for designing an interface-induced PMA system.

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References in corpus (1)

• A 4-fold-symmetry hexagonal ruthenium for magnetic heterostructures exhibiting enhanced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and tunnel magnetoresistance

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Voltage control of magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial Ru/Co2FeAl/MgO heterostructures
• Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Pt/Co-based full Heusler alloy/MgO thin films structures
• Tracing magnetic atom diffusion with annealing at the interface between CoMn alloy and MnGa layer by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism