No Arabic abstract
We investigate in this paper the origin of perpendicular anisotropy in Co (1.6 nm)/Pt (3.0 nm) bilayers grown on alumina and annealed up to 650$^{circ}$C. Above 350$^{circ}$C, all layers exhibit perpendicular anisotropy. Then coercive fields increase linearly with annealing temperature following two different rates: 0.05 T/100$^{circ}$C below 550$^{circ}$C and 0.8 T/100$^{circ}$C above. By making careful structural characterizations using x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, we demonstrate the presence of short range correlation of L1$_{1}$ type below 550$^{circ}$C whereas above 550$^{circ}$C, L1$_{0}$ chemical ordering is observed. We conclude that perpendicular anisotropy observed in Co/Pt bilayers grown on alumina and annealed may not only be due to interface anisotropy as usually invoked but also to CoPt alloying and chemical ordering that take place during post-growth annealing.
We have studied the magnetic properties of multilayers composed of ferromagnetic metal Co and heavy metals with strong spin orbit coupling (Pt and Ir). Multilayers with symmetric (ABA stacking) and asymmetric (ABC stacking) structures are grown to study the effect of broken structural inversion symmetry. We compare the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) energy of symmetric Pt/Co/Pt, Ir/Co/Ir multilayers and asymmetric Pt/Co/Ir, Ir/Co/Pt multilayers. First, the interface contribution to the PMA is studied using the Co layer thickness dependence of the effective PMA energy. Comparison of the interfacial PMA between the Ir/Co/Pt, Pt/Co/Ir asymmetric structures and Pt/Co/Pt, Ir/Co/Ir symmetric structures indicate that the broken structural inversion symmetry induced PMA is small compared to the overall interfacial PMA. Second, we find the magnetic anisotropy field is significantly increased in multilayers when the ferromagnetic layers are antiferromagnetically coupled via interlayer exchange coupling (IEC). Macrospin model calculations can qualitatively account for the relation between the anisotropy field and the IEC. Among the structures studied, IEC is the largest for the asymmetric Ir/Co/Pt multilayers: the exchange coupling field exceeds 3 T and consequently, the anisotropy field approaches 10 T. Third, comparing the asymmetric Ir/Co/Pt and Pt/Co/Ir structures, we find the IEC and, to some extent, the interface PMA are stronger for the former than the latter. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism studies suggest that the proximity induced magnetization in Pt is larger for the Ir/Co/Pt multilayers than the inverted structure, which may partly account for the difference in the magnetic properties. These results show the intricate relation between PMA, IEC and the proximity induced magnetization that can be exploited to design artificial structures with unique magnetic characteristics.
We report on magnetic domain wall velocity measurements in ultrathin Pt/Co(0.5-0.8 nm)/Pt films with perpendicular anisotropy over a large range of applied magnetic fields. The complete velocity-field characteristics are obtained, enabling an examination of the transition between thermally activated creep and viscous flow: motion regimes predicted from general theories for driven elastic interfaces in weakly disordered media. The dissipation limited flow regime is found to be consistent with precessional domain wall motion, analysis of which yields values for the damping parameter, $alpha$.
Nonreciprocal charge transport, which is frequently termed as electrical magnetochiral anisotropy (EMCA) in chiral conductors, touches the most important elements of modern condensed matter physics. Here, we have investigated the EMCA in Pt/PtMnGa (PMG) bilayers with the assitance of nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems. Large EMCA in the Pt/PMG bilayers can be attributed to nonreciprocal response of an interface-driven chiral transport channel. Due to the presence of large charge fluctuations for small current region, higher order EMCA coefficients should be added and they are all functions of current. A combination of asymmetrical electron scattering and spin-dependent scattering furnish the PMG thickness dependent chiral transport behaviors in Pt/PMG bilayers. The dramatically enhanced anomalous Hall angle of PMG further demonstrates the modified surface state properties by strong spin-orbit coupling.
A combination of theoretical modelling and experiments reveals the origin of the large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) that appears in nanometer-thick epitaxial Co films intercalated between graphene (Gr) and a heavy metal (HM) substrate, as a function of the Co thickness. High quality epitaxial Gr/Co /HM(111) (HM=Pt,Ir) heterostructures are grown by intercalation below graphene, which acts as a surfactant that kinetically stabilizes the pseudomorphic growth of highly perfect Co face-centered tetragonal ($fct$) films, with a reduced number of stacking faults as the only structural defect observable by high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-STEM). Magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements show that such heterostructures present PMA up to large Co critical thicknesses of about 4~nm (20~ML) and 2~nm (10~ML) for Pt and Ir substrates, respectively, while X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements show an inverse power law of the anistropy of the orbital moment with Co thickness, reflecting its interfacial nature, that changes sign at about the same critical values. First principles calculations show that, regardless of the presence of graphene, ideal Co $fct$ films on HM buffers do not sustain PMAs beyond around 6~MLs due to the in-plane contribution of the inner bulk-like Co layers. The large experimental critical thicknesses sustaining PMA can only be retrieved by the inclusion of structural defects that promote a local $hcp$ stacking such as twin boundaries or stacking faults. Remarkably, a layer resolved analysis of the orbital momentum anisotropy reproduces its interfacial nature, and reveals that the Gr/Co interface contribution is comparable to that of the Co/Pt(Ir).
We have investigated crystalline magnetic anisotropy in the electric field (EF) for the Fe-Pt surface which have a large perpendicular anisotropy, by means of the first-principles approach. The anisotropy is reduced linearly with respect to the inward EF, associated with the induced spin density around the Fe layer. Although the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) density reveals the large variation around the atoms, the intrinsic contribution to the MAE is found to mainly come from the Fe layer.