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arXiv · 2208.07007

The origin of enhanced interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in LiF-inserted Fe/MgO interface

Shoya Sakamoto·Takayuki Nozaki·Shinji Yuasa·Kenta Amemiya·Shinji Miwa
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Abstract

The Fe/MgO interface is an essential ingredient in spintronics as it shows giant tunneling magnetoresistance and strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). A recent study demonstrated that the insertion of an ultra-thin LiF layer between the Fe and MgO layers enhances PMA significantly. In this study, we perform x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements on Fe/LiF/MgO multilayers to reveal the origin of the PMA enhancement. We find that the LiF insertion increases the orbital-magnetic-moment anisotropy and thus the magnetic anisotropy energy. We attribute the origin of this orbital-magnetic-moment-anisotropy enhancement to the stronger electron localization and electron-electron correlation or the better interface quality with fewer defects.

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Shoya Sakamoto, Takayuki Nozaki, Shinji Yuasa, Kenta Amemiya, Shinji Miwa. 2022-08-15. The origin of enhanced interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in LiF-inserted Fe/MgO interface. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.106.174410

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