Precise control of interface anisotropy during deposition of Co/Pd multilayers

Barton, C.W.; Slater, T.J.A.; Rowan-Robinson, R.M.; Haigh, S.J.; Atkinson, D.; Thomson, T.

Abstract

We demonstrate the control of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in multilayer films without modification of either the microstructure or saturation magnetization by tuning the Ar+ ion energy using remote plasma sputtering. We show that for [Co/Pd]8 multilayer films, increasing the Ar+ ion energy results in a strong decrease in PMA through an increase in interfacial roughness determined by X-ray reflectivity measurements. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope image data show that the microstructure is independent of Ar+ energy. This opens a different approach to the in-situ deposition of graded exchange springs and for control of the polarizing layer in hybrid spin transfer torque devices.

Citation

Barton, C., Slater, T., Rowan-Robinson, R., Haigh, S., Atkinson, D., & Thomson, T. (2014). Precise control of interface anisotropy during deposition of Co/Pd multilayers. Journal of Applied Physics, 116(16), Article 203903. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902826

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 12, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Nov 26, 2014
• Publication Date: Nov 26, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 25, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 26, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Applied Physics
• Print ISSN: 0021-8979
• Electronic ISSN: 1089-7550
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 116
• Issue: 16
• Article Number: 203903
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902826
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1390997