Room-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Pt/Co/AlOx trilayers on SrTiO3 (001)

• Published in: AIP advances Vol. 10; no. 10; pp. 105010 - 105010-6
• Main Authors: Du, Ye, Arai, Shoma, Kaneta-Takada, Shingo, Anh, Le Duc, Karube, Shutaro, Kohda, Makoto, Ohya, Shinobu, Nitta, Junsaku
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 01.10.2020; AIP Publishing LLC
• Subjects: Cobalt; Diffusion length; Electron diffraction; High energy electrons; Magnetic anisotropy; Platinum; Room temperature; Strontium titanates; Substrates; Thickness; Thin films
• ISSN: 2158-3226; 2158-3226
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0023282

We demonstrate room-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in Pt/Co/AlOx trilayers sputter-deposited onto a SrTiO3 (STO) (001) substrate. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction and x-ray diffraction results confirm the two-dimensional polycrystalline nature for both Pt and Co layers in PMA films, which are (111) oriented in the out-of-plane direction. While the PMA in Pt/Co/AlOx trilayers on STO (001) is found to have interfacial origins, sizable PMA is maintained when Pt layer thickness is as thin as 1 nm, which is several times to one order of magnitude smaller than the reported values of the spin diffusion length for Pt, thus facilitating spin transmission along the thin-film-normal direction. With the STO (001) substrate serving as the fundamental building block for realizing giant Rashba spin splitting, this work provides a feasible platform for the investigation of magnetization switching in two-dimensional-electron-gas-based magnetic hetero-structures at room temperature.