Engineering the magnetic anisotropy of an ultrathin Co layer sandwiched between films of Mo or Au

XMCD studies of magnetic polarization at Mo atoms in CoMo alloy and magnetically coupled Co/Mo multilayers

“…Also, the XANES profile at the Co K-edge typical of a hexagonal closepacked (h.c.p.) structure (Wawro et al, 2017b) proves that Co grows in the bulk-like mode and alloying at the interfaces is negligible. Slightly dotted RHEED streaks from the alloy show that the crystalline structure is also maintained; however, the surface is much rougher than that of the layered samples.…”

“…At the Mo(110)/Co(0001) interface both a structural mismatch (body-centred cubic versus close-packed) and a lattice parameter discrepancy take place. Moreover, rapid relaxation of the Co lattice grown at the Mo buffer suggests high density of dislocations (Wawro et al, 2017b). These factors may cause a substantial scattering of the electrons and their spins.…”

Structural, magnetostatic, and magnetodynamic studies of Co/Mo-based uncompensated synthetic antiferromagnets

“…Particularly, the central Co layer behaves in different way than others due to smaller M S . [34] The magnetization of the middle layer is softer taking perpendicular orientation with respect to the other Co layers at relatively high magnetic field (Fig. 9(f) at H=0.25 kOe).…”

“…Detailed discussion of these relations is presented elsewhere. [34] In order to model experimentally observed behaviour, a macrospin approximation was used to find a set of magnetic parameters that could reproduce observed hysteresis loops in easy and hard axis direction. The orientation of magnetic moments was calculated by minimazing the total magnetic energy of the system given by Eq.(4).…”

“…Due to different crystalline symmetry and the lattice mismatch at the interfaces the Mo buffer induces anisotropic strains that results in in-plane two-fold magnetic anisotropy. [34] Moreover, the in-plane magnetized trilayers exhibit an antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in the M o spacer thickness (d M o ) ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 nm. This coupling can be tuned or switched to ferromagnetic type by ion irradiation.…”