Elimination of interface states of Co2MnSi/MgO/Co2MnSi magnetic tunneling junction by inserting an Al atomic layer

Depth-dependent magnetism in epitaxial MnSb thin films: effects of surface passivation and cleaning

“…Both for artifical multilayered magnetic structures and naturally occuring "layers" such as free surfaces, one often wishes to measure the magnetic behavior with both elemental and depth specificity. To give recent examples, magnetite (001) surfaces terminated with a monolayer of H retain their bulk-like spin polarization (SP) far more readily than the unpassivated surface [8], while the Co 2 MnSi-MgO interface could be rendered free of minority spin interface states by the insertion of an atomic layer of Al in a particular layer ordering [9]. Such effects can only be studied in isolation by experimental techniques with appropriate depth sensitivity or elemental specificity.…”

Growth, structural, and magnetic characterization of epitaxial Co2MnSi films deposited on MgO and Cr seed layers

“…The shift field is defined as H S ¼ (H S1 À H S2 )/2, where H S1 and H S2 denote the fields where sub-loops separated by the plateaus are symmetric around at positive and negative fields along [110] direction (see Figure 6(a), left column, for clarity), respectively. For the MgO/CMS/Cr//MgO(001) film with t CMS ¼ 92.72 nm, sub-loops are barely distinguishable with our MOKE setup and magnetic curves with H applied along [110] and [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] axes superimpose into a square loop with coercive field (H C ) value of $6 Oe, as can be seen in Figure 6(b) (left). On the contrary, Table I shows that H S value increases as t CMS decreases for samples with t CMS 66.76 nm.…”

“…M(H) curves for films directly deposited on MgO reveal an in-plane magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis oriented along [110] MgO , i.e., along the [100] axis of the Heusler alloy. The expected four fold anisotropy due to epitaxial growth is found to be superimposed to an additional uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with the easyaxis along the MgO [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] in-plane direction. Indeed, when the external magnetic field is applied along the [110] axis, the longitudinal magnetization switches in two defined Barkhausen jumps separated by an intermediate plateau (see Fig.…”

“…Indeed, when the external magnetic field is applied along the [110] axis, the longitudinal magnetization switches in two defined Barkhausen jumps separated by an intermediate plateau (see Fig. 6(a): left column, red line), while when the magnetic field is applied along [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] (Fig. 6(a): left column, black line), the hysteresis loop exhibits a "classical" square shape with only two stable magnetic configuration.…”

“…6(c) and 6(d)). For these samples, the longitudinal L-MOKE signal presents typical square hysteresis loops with 100% remanence for magnetic fields applied along both [110] MgO and [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] MgO axes, while the magnetization reversal along the [100] MgO axis is a typical hard magnetic axis loop showing a continuous rotation of the magnetization, followed by an abrupt switch. Nevertheless, the two coercive fields in the two easy h110i MgO directions are not equal in the sample with t CMS ¼ 6.37 nm (see Figure 6(c)).…”