Concurrent improvement of magneto-optical and perpendicular magnetic properties in CoPt/Ag stacked structures with ZnO intermediate thin layers

Abstract

The magneto-optical properties of stacked-layer structures consisting of hcp-Co80Pt20 thin films and noble metal underlayers were investigated under polar Kerr measurement conditions. For CoPt/Ag stacked films, insertion of a 2-nm-thick ZnO layer into the interface resulted in the concurrent improvement of the magneto-optical enhancement at the plasma edge of Ag and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. An ideal square out-of-plane hysteresis loop with a large Kerr rotation of approximately 1.25° was obtained in the CoPt/ZnO/Ag stacked structure. Moreover, heat treatment in a vacuum resulted in further improvement of the perpendicular magneto-optical properties in the stacked structures with thin CoPt layers.