Magnetoelastically induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and perpendicular exchange bias of CoO/CoPt multilayer films

Abstract

The effects of magnetoelastically induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) on perpendicular exchange bias (PEB) have been studied in [CoO5nm/CoPt5nm]5 multilayer films. After deposition at room temperature, [CoO5nm/CoPt5nm]5 multilayer films were post-annealed at 100°C, 250°C, 300°C and 375°C for 3h. In-plane tensile stress of CoPt layer was calculated by sin2φ method, and we found it increased gradually upon annealing from 0.99GPa (as-deposited) up to 3.02GPa (300°C-annealed). As to the magnetic property, significant enhancement of PMA was achieved in [CoO5nm/CoPt5nm]5 multilayer films after annealing due to the increase of CoPt layer in-plane tensile stress. With the enhancement of magnetoelastically induced PMA, great improvement of PEB was also achieved in [CoO5nm/CoPt5nm]5 multilayer films, which increased from 130Oe (as-deposited) up to 1060Oe (300°C-annealed), showing the same change tendency as PMA and the strong correlation with CoPt layer in-plane tensile stress. We consider it is the increase of CoPt layer in-plane tensile stress that leads to the enhancement of CoPt layer PMA, which is favorable for the spins in CoPt layer aligning to a more perpendicular direction. And thus the enhanced PMA with more perpendicular spins alignment in CoPt layer results in the improved PEB in [CoO5nm/CoPt5nm]5 multilayer films through enhanced perpendicular spins coupling at CoO/CoPt interfaces.