TY - JOUR
T1 - Cu-Containing [Pt/Co] multilayers with low saturation magnetization suitable for the pinned structure
AU - Son, Dong Su
AU - Lee, Tae Young
AU - Lim, Sang Ho
AU - Lee, Seong Rae
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/11/1
Y1 - 2014/11/1
N2 - We prepared [Pt/(Co, Cu)] multilayers with a very thin (i.e., 0.2 nm thick) Pt layer and a thicker (i.e., 0.4, 0.5, or 0.6 nm thick) (Co, Cu) layer and investigated the effects of the Cu content in the (Co, Cu) layer and the postannealing temperature on the magnetic properties of the multilayers. The samples in the as-deposited state and those annealed up to 500 °C for 1 h all exhibited perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). The PMA strength and saturation magnetization both decreased with increasing content of Cu in the samples. The saturation magnetization of the Cu containing multilayers annealed at 500 °C substantially decreased, probably owing to the change in the microstructure from a layered structure in the as-deposited samples to a bulk phase in the annealed ones, as supported by high resolution transmission electron microscopy images. The effective PMA energy density of the samples annealed at high temperatures, on the other hand, remained nearly unchanged and even increased slightly indicating a high postannealing stability of Cu containing multilayers. The Cu-containing multilayers may find potential application to high density magnetic random access memory as the pinned structure of magnetic tunnel junctions because the multilayers showed low saturation magnetizations in the range 164-753 emu/cm3 and high postannealing stability.
AB - We prepared [Pt/(Co, Cu)] multilayers with a very thin (i.e., 0.2 nm thick) Pt layer and a thicker (i.e., 0.4, 0.5, or 0.6 nm thick) (Co, Cu) layer and investigated the effects of the Cu content in the (Co, Cu) layer and the postannealing temperature on the magnetic properties of the multilayers. The samples in the as-deposited state and those annealed up to 500 °C for 1 h all exhibited perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). The PMA strength and saturation magnetization both decreased with increasing content of Cu in the samples. The saturation magnetization of the Cu containing multilayers annealed at 500 °C substantially decreased, probably owing to the change in the microstructure from a layered structure in the as-deposited samples to a bulk phase in the annealed ones, as supported by high resolution transmission electron microscopy images. The effective PMA energy density of the samples annealed at high temperatures, on the other hand, remained nearly unchanged and even increased slightly indicating a high postannealing stability of Cu containing multilayers. The Cu-containing multilayers may find potential application to high density magnetic random access memory as the pinned structure of magnetic tunnel junctions because the multilayers showed low saturation magnetizations in the range 164-753 emu/cm3 and high postannealing stability.
KW - Cu)] multilayers
KW - Low saturation magnetization
KW - [Pt/(Co
KW - magnetic random access memory
KW - perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84915749790&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84915749790&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TMAG.2014.2325054
DO - 10.1109/TMAG.2014.2325054
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84915749790
VL - 50
JO - IEEE Transactions on Magnetics
JF - IEEE Transactions on Magnetics
SN - 0018-9464
IS - 11
M1 - 6971447
ER -