Extraction of the chemical contribution to the interfacial magnetic anisotropy in Ni/Cu3Au(001)

Abstract

The manipulation of magnetic anisotropy via interface is crucial for spintronics, but its mechanism is still controversial due to the parasitic problem of strain and the chemistry environment. We have independently controlled the interfacial chemistry of the epitaxially grown Ni film on ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}\mathrm{Au}(001)$ by inserting the thickness wedged Cu layer. The Ni layer is confirmed to be fully strained until 8 ML by the analysis of LEED I-V spectra, which guarantees that the strain contributions to the magnetic anisotropies are identical. Our results clearly show that the chemistry contribution of Au atoms at $\mathrm{Ni}/{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}\mathrm{Au}$ interface plays a major role for its perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We provide a method to quantitatively separate and extract the chemistry and strain contributions to the interfacial magnetic anisotropy, which is helpful for clarifying its mechanism and developing high performance spintronic materials and devices.