Abstract
The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in CoFeB sandwiched by MgO and tantalum layers was investigated using anomalous Hall effect and polarized neutron reflectometry. It was found that a large PMA in the CoFeB above MgO layer was related to its low magnetization compared to the case of CoFeB under MgO layer. Using the sensitivity of neutrons to the absorption cross-section of boron, we unambiguously determined the depth profile of the boron distribution and showed that after annealing, most of the boron diffused to form a 2-nm-thick interface layer between the CoFeB and tantalum layers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 202406 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 100 |
| Issue number | 20 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 14 2012 |
Funding
This work has been supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB933102) and National Science Foundation of China (Grants 50871120, 11079052, and 11174354). Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. J. Q. Xiao is supported by DOE under Grant number DE-FG02-07ER46374. The authors thank Ms. D. Counce from ORNL Publishing Services for her help with the manuscript editing.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Scientific User Facilities Division | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-FG02-07ER46374 |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 11174354, 11079052, 50871120 |
| National Key Research and Development Program of China | 2012CB933102 |