Magnetic anisotropy at the buried CoO/Fe interface

Interfaces between antiferromagnetic CoO and ferromagnetic Fe are typically characterized by the development of Fe oxides. Recently, it was shown that the use of a proper ultra-thin Cobuffer layer prevents the formation of Fe oxides [Brambillaet al., Appl. Surf. Sci.362, 374 (2016)]. In the present work, we investigate the magneticproperties of such aninterface, and we find evidence for an in-plane uniaxialmagnetic anisotropy, which is characterized by a multijump reversal behavior in the magnetizationhysteresis loops.X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and element-sensitivehysteresis loops reveal that the occurrence of such ananisotropy is a phenomenon developing at the veryinterface.

Source: Applied Physics Letters - December 5, 2016 Category: Physics Authors: D. Giannotti, H. Hedayat, G. Vinai, A. Picone, A. Calloni, G. Berti, M. Riva, G. Bussetti, F. Boschini, P. Torelli, G. Panaccione, E. Carpene, C. Dallera, M. Finazzi and A. Brambilla Source Type: research