Contributions of Co and Fe orbitals to Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy of MgO/CoFeB Bilayers with Spin-Orbit-Torque-Related (Ta, W, IrMn, and Ti) Underlayers

Abstract

We study the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of the CoFeB/MgO bilayers in contact with W, Ta, IrMn and Ti which has been suggested as the spin-orbit-torque-related underlayers. The saturation magnetization of the CoFeB depends on the underlayer materials due to formation of a dead-layer, affecting PMA strength of each film. The x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurement reveals that the interfacial intermixing suppresses only the perpendicular orbital moment of Fe, while the intermixing simultaneously suppresses both the perpendicular and in-plane orbital moments of Co.