Enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in MgAl2O4/CoFeMnSi/MgAl2O4/W multilayer films

Abstract

The effect of annealing temperature and film thickness on the enhancement in interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is investigated in MgAl2O4(MAO)/CoFeMnSi(CFMS)/MAO/W stacks. A maximum effective PMA energy density (Keff) of ≈ 2.48 × 106 erg/cc is observed when the thickness of the MAO layers (tMAO) is 1.5 nm. The development of the PMA and saturation magnetization (Ms) is significantly stimulated by the structural changes at the MAO/CFMS and CFMS/MAO interfaces owing to the adequate interfacial oxidation state while tuning CFMS and MAO thickness. The study demonstrates that controlling the oxygen diffusion across the adjoining interface could be an easier means of achieving specific magnetic properties. These results open a new path towards the realization of novel spintronic devices employing PMA.