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Electronic structures of MgO/Fe interfaces with perpendicular magnetization revealed by hard X-ray photoemission with an applied magnetic field
- Source :
- Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 796-804 (2019), Science and Technology of Advanced Materials
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Taylor & Francis Group, 2019.
-
Abstract
- We have developed hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) under an applied magnetic field of 1 kOe to study the electronic and magnetic states related to the MgO/Fe interface-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). In this work, we used MgO (2 nm)/Fe (1.5 and 20 nm)/MgO(001) structures to reveal the interface-induced electronic states of the Fe film. Perpendicular magnetization of the 1.5-nm-thick Fe film without extrinsic oxidation of the Fe film was detected by the Fe 2p core-level magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) in HAXPES under a magnetic field, and easy magnetization axis perpendicular to the film plane was confirmed by ex situ magnetic hysteresis measurements. The valence-band HAXPES spectrum of the 1.5-nm-thick Fe film revealed that the Fe 3d electronic states were strongly modified from the thick Fe film and a reference bulk Fe sample due to the lifting of degeneracy in the Fe 3d states near the MgO/Fe interface. We found that the tetragonal distortion of the Fe film by the MgO substrate also contributes to the lifting of degeneracy in the Fe 3d states and PMA, as well as the Fe 3d-O 2p hybridization at the MgO/Fe interface, by comparing the valence-band spectrum with density functional theory calculations for MgO/Fe multilayer structures. Thus, we can conclude that the Fe 3d-O 2p hybridization and tetragonal distortion of the Fe film play important roles in PMA at the MgO/Fe interface. HAXPES with in situ magnetization thus represents a powerful new method for studying spintronic structures.<br />GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
- Subjects :
- Materials science
502 Electron spectroscopy
lcsh:Biotechnology
interface-induced pma
02 engineering and technology
212 Surface and interfaces
010402 general chemistry
mgo/fe interface
01 natural sciences
electronic structures
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
lcsh:TP248.13-248.65
lcsh:TA401-492
General Materials Science
X ray photoemission
magnetic and electronic device materials
40 Optical
haxpes under a magnetic field
Condensed matter physics
hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (haxpes)
Optical, Magnetic and Electronic Device Materials
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
0104 chemical sciences
Magnetic field
perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (pma)
lcsh:Materials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials
Perpendicular magnetization
0210 nano-technology
203 Magnetics / Spintronics / Superconductors
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 18785514 and 14686996
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science and Technology of Advanced Materials
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4a236b6532d97365198181e27c5f42fe