Effect of annealing conditions on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Ta/CoFeB/MgO multilayers

Films with a structure of Ta (5 nm)/Co20Fe60B20 (0.8–1.5 nm)/MgO (1 nm)/Ta (1 nm) were deposited on Corning glass substrates by magnetron sputtering. The as-deposited films with CoFeB layer thickness from 0.8 to 1.3 nm show perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). After annealing at a proper tempera...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yan Liu, Liang Hao, Jiangwei Cao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2016-04-01
Series:AIP Advances
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4947132
Description
Summary:Films with a structure of Ta (5 nm)/Co20Fe60B20 (0.8–1.5 nm)/MgO (1 nm)/Ta (1 nm) were deposited on Corning glass substrates by magnetron sputtering. The as-deposited films with CoFeB layer thickness from 0.8 to 1.3 nm show perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). After annealing at a proper temperature, the PMA of the films can be enhanced remarkably. A maximum effective anisotropy field of up to 9 kOe was obtained for 1.0- and 1.1-nm-thick CoFeB layers annealed at an optimum temperature of 300 °C. A 4-kOe magnetic field was applied during annealing to study its effect on the PMA of the CoFeB layers. The results confirmed that applying a perpendicular magnetic field during annealing did not improve the maximum PMA of the films, but it did enhance the PMA of the thinner films at a lower annealing temperature.
ISSN:2158-3226