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Competition of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and exchange magnetic anisotropy in a Pt/Co/α-Cr2O3(0001) thin film

Authors :
Toshiaki Fujita
Yu Shiratsuchi
Hayato Noutomi
Hiroto Oikawa
Ryoichi Nakatani
Source :
Journal of Applied Physics. 109:07C101
Publication Year :
2011
Publisher :
AIP Publishing, 2011.

Abstract

We investigated perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and exchange magnetic anisotropy in a Pt/Co/α-Cr2O3(0001) thin film grown on an α-Al2O3(0001) substrate. The film exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy below a Co thickness of 1.2 nm at room temperature. Independent of the magnetic easy direction of the Co layer, the perpendicular exchange bias (PEB) appears in a direction perpendicular to the film below 80 K. The maximum unidirectional magnetic anisotropy energy estimated from the exchange bias field is 0.33 erg/cm2, which is higher than the reported PEB strength. The perpendicular exchange bias is accompanied by the in-plane remanent magnetization and an increase in the in-plane coercivity. We speculate that the increases in the in-plane remanent magnetization and the in-plane coercivity are caused by the spin canting of Cr3+ in the α-Cr2O3(0001) layer.

Details

ISSN :
10897550 and 00218979
Volume :
109
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Applied Physics
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........83302d74b52cfb7f6f6b564676a6d985
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3535555