1. Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, , Tsukuba 305‐8577, Japan;2. National Institute for Materials Science, , Tsukuba, 305‐0047 Japan
Abstract:
The recently reported MgAl2O4 tunnel barrier for the magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) is considered to be an alternative to the conventional MgO barrier, since a large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio was obtained for the MgAl2O4‐based MTJs. In this study, we demonstrated large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) arising from the interfaces of Fe(001)/MgAl2O4 layered structures, which can be useful for developing perpendicularly magnetized MgAl2O4‐based MTJs. A PMA energy density of 0.4 MJ/m3 was achieved for an epitaxially grown 0.7 nm thick Fe/MgAl2O4(001). Interestingly, the interface PMA was also obtained for the Fe/non‐epitaxially grown MgAl2O4 structures, which indicates that the crystallographic structure of MgAl2O4 layer has no critical influence on the obtained PMA.
