The study of origin of interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in ultra-thin CoFeB layer on the top of MgO based magnetic tunnel junction

Abstract

A comprehensive microstructure study has been conducted experimentally for identifying the origin or mechanism of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in the ultra-thin (10 Å) CoFeB layer on the top of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The high resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals that the feature of crystal structure in 10 Å-CoFeB layer is localized in nature at the CoFeB-MgO interface. On the other hand, the strain-relaxed crystalline structure is observed in the thick CoFeB (20 Å) layer at the CoFeB-MgO interface, associated with a series of dislocation formations. The electron energy loss spectroscopy further suggests that the local chemical stoichiometry of the ultra-thin 10 Å-CoFeB layer is notably changed at the CoFeB-MgO interface, compared with an atomic stoichiometry in a thick 20 Å-CoFeB layer. The origin of PMA mechanism is therefore identified experimentally as an interface effect, which can be attributed to a change of local atom bonding or lattice constant of the transition metal at the CoFeB-MgO based MTJ interface. Furthermore, such a local interfacial atom bonding change is seemly induced by the localized anisotropic strain and consistent with previous theoretical speculations and calculations. The observed experimental findings provide some perspective on microstructure and chemistry on PMA in ultra-thin CoFeB film at the MTJ interface, then deepening our understanding of the mechanism of PMA within MTJ stack and thus facilitating advancement for emerging spintronics technology.