MgO Bilayer Research Articles

Properties of Co(11 [formula omitted]0)/Mo(100)/MgO(100) bilayers

Co(11 2 0)/Mo(100)/MgO(100) bilayers were grown using molecular beam epitaxy; the thickness of the Co layer was 200 Å and that of the Mo buffer 0, 6, 20 and 50 Å, respectively. Their magnetic, electric and surface properties were studied as functions of the non-magnetic buffer layer thickness and coercivity, resistivity and magnetization at 1 T were found to be correlated with surface roughness. The static scaling exponent was determined to be α = 0.58 ± 0.02 for all films, regardless of the roughness and topography of their surface.

Surface topography and anisotropy of Co(11~00)/Cr(211) bilayers

Correlation between the thickness of the nonmagnetic layer and the magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial Co(11~00)/Cr(211)/MgO(110) bilayers was studied experimentally and analyzed theoretically. The Co thickness was held constant at 200 /spl Aring/ while the thickness of the Cr layer was varied between 6 and 100 /spl Aring/. Coercivity was found to decrease with increasing thickness of a continuous Cr layer: at low temperatures the observed data are in good agreement with a model of roughness induced magnetostatic anisotropy energy.