X-ray absorption and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism studies on a monatomic bcc-Co(001) layer facing an amorphous Al-O tunnel barrier

• Published in: Journal of applied physics Vol. 100; no. 2; pp. 023912 - 023912-4
• Main Authors: Katayama, Toshikazu, Yuasa, Shinji, Saito, Shinji, Kurosaki, Yoshinari, Saito, Toshiaki, Kamino, Tomoyuki, Kobayashi, Kie, Suzuki, Yoshishige, Manaka, Hirotaka, Koide, Tsuneharu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics 15.07.2006
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2200407

We studied the electronic states and magnetic moments of a bcc-Co(001) monatomic layer facing an amorphous Al-O tunneling barrier using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at the L 2 , 3 core edges of Co. Both the XAS and XMCD measurements revealed that 1 monolayer (ML) Co is not oxidized. The magnetic moment of 1 ML bcc Co(001) facing the amorphous Al-O was observed to be almost the same as that of bulk Co. In contrast, the total magnetic moment of 1 ML bcc Co(001) facing a metallic Al layer was reduced by the effect of the proximity to Al atoms.