Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Pd/Co55Mn25Si20/NiO/Pd sputtering films

Abstract

This paper carries out research on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of the Pd/Co55Mn25Si20(CMS)/NiO trilayer stack, which is a structure innovatively combining heavy metal (HM)/ferromagnetic (FM) interface (Pd/CMS), FM/oxide interface (CMS/NiO), and FM/antiferromagnetic (AFM) interface (CMS/NiO). The maximum effective PMA energy, obtained from the Pd (6 nm)/Co55Mn25Si20(5.5 nm)/NiO(1.0 nm) trilayer film which is sputter-deposited on glass at a substrate temperature of 350 °C, is 0.695 Merg/cm3. By appropriately increasing the Co content, a wider FM layer thickness range (3–8 nm) that achieved PMA was obtained. The oxide in the traditional FM/oxide structure was replaced by the antiferromagnetic NiO to obtain a wider oxide layer thickness of 0.4–7.6 nm, or even wider.