Minghong Tang

Interfacial effect on the ferromagnetic damping of CoFeB thin films with different under-layers

Interfacial effects on magnetic properties are investigated for the as-deposited and annealed Co64Fe16B20 films with different under-layers (Cu, Ru, or Pd). The intrinsic Gilbert damping factor is inferred to be slightly lower than the obtained value of 0.007. We found that both the in-plane coercivity Hc and ferromagnetic resonance linewidth ΔHpp rely on the interfacial morphology. The Cu under-layer provides a rough surface, which offers an extra contribution to the ΔHpp. The surface roughness was greatly enhanced by post-annealing for Cu, while little affected for Ru and Pd. Resultingly, the ΔHpp and Hc of Cu/CoFeB increase significantly after annealing. However, for the annealed Ru/CoFeB sample, the ΔHpp even decreases implying Ru is a proper under-layer material for CoFeB-based spintronic devices.

Interfacial exchange coupling and magnetization reversal in perpendicular [Co/Ni] N / TbCo composite structures

Interfacial exchange coupling and magnetization reversal characteristics in the perpendicular heterostructures consisting of an amorphous ferrimagnetic (FI) TbxCo100–x alloy layer exchange-coupled with a ferromagnetic (FM) [Co/Ni]N multilayer have been investigated. As compared with pure TbxCo100–x alloy, the magnetization compensation composition of the heterostructures shift to a higher Tb content, implying Co/Ni also serves to compensate the Tb moment in TbCo layer. The net magnetization switching field Hc⊥ and interlayer interfacial coupling field Hex, are not only sensitive to the magnetization and thickness of the switched TbxCo100–x or [Co/Ni]N layer, but also to the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy strength of the pinning layer. By tuning the layer structure we achieve simultaneously both large Hc⊥ = 1.31 T and Hex = 2.19 T. These results, in addition to the fundamental interest, are important to understanding of the interfacial coupling interaction in the FM/FI heterostructures, which could offer the guiding of potential applications in heat-assisted magnetic recording or all-optical switching recording technique.

Magnetic damping and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Pd-buffered [Co/Ni]5 and [Ni/Co]5 multilayers

We systematically studied the influence of Pd underlayer on the magnetic properties of perpendicular [Co/Ni]5 and [Ni/Co]5 multilayers by time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. We found that the saturated magnetic damping constant α0 increases continuously with increasing the Pd thickness tPd, showing no linear correlation with the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy constant Ku for both series of samples. As compared to the Co/Ni sample with the same tPd, the Ni/Co film shows lower saturation magnetization, weaker Ku but larger α0, which can be ascribed to the presence of more paramagnetic spins at the Pd/Ni interface due to the weak exchange coupling stiffness between Ni atoms. By analyzing extrinsic damping contributions from magnetic inhomogeneities, two-magnon scattering and spin pumping effects, the intrinsic damping of perpendicular [Ni/Co]5 is quantitatively determined to be 0.023. This study should provide deep understanding and effective control of magnetic damping for designing high performance magnetic memory devices.

Manipulation of perpendicular exchange bias effect in [Co/Ni]N/(Cu, Ta)/TbCo multilayer structures

With the demand for increasing storage density in spintronic applications, extensive work has been devoted to searching for perpendicular magnetic material systems with strong exchange bias effect. In this study we have investigated the exchange bias effect in perpendicular magnetized heterostructures of [Co/Ni]N/(Cu, Ta)/TbCo. An interlayer of 0.8 nm Cu is capable of achieving separate magnetization switching, showing a quite large exchange bias field over 2.9 kOe. With increasing the interlayer thickness, both the Co/Ni bias field and TbCo switching field decrease much more rapidly for the samples with a Ta interlayer as compared to the Cu case, due to the better coverage ability of the amorphous nature. The influence of layer thickness and composition of the FM and FI layers has also been investigated and the variation tendencies are well interpreted.

Investigation and Effective Control of Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy for TbCo Films with Different Underlayers

We performed a detailed study on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of TbCo film by using two kinds of nonmagnetic underlayers, Ta and Ta/Cu with different thicknesses. We found that for both the Tb-rich and Co-rich TbCo alloy films, the PMA strength decreases considerably with the increase of Ta underlayer thickness, while their net saturation magnetization Ms exhibit opposite varying trends. The Ms value continues to increase for the Co-rich TbCo samples while decrease for the Tb-rich films. Interestingly, an additional Cu layer inserted between the Ta and TbCo layers can efficiently recover the PMA and Ms. We attribute such observed variation behaviors of magnetic properties to the increased disordering of Tb magnetic moments at the Ta/TbCo interface, which has been verified by both experimental measurements and micromagnetic simulations.

Influence of heavy metal materials on magnetic properties of Pt/Co/heavy metal tri-layered structures

Pt/Co/heavy metal (HM) tri-layered structures with interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) are currently under intensive research for several emerging spintronic effects, such as spin-orbit torque (SOT) [1, 2], domain wall motion [3, 4] and room temperature skyrmions [5, 6].