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Dead Layer in a Ta/Ni81Fe19/Ta Structure |
| YU Guang-Hua1,2;REN Ting-Ting1;LI Ming-Hua1,2;ZHU Feng-Wu1;JIANG Huang-Wei2;LAI Wu-Yan2 |
| 1Department of Materials Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083
2Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080 |
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| Cite this article: |
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YU Guang-Hua, REN Ting-Ting, LI Ming-Hua et al 2002 Chin. Phys. Lett. 19 1347-1349 |
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Abstract Effect of Ta seed layers and Ta cap layers on the effective magnetic thickness of ultrathin permalloy (Ni81Fe19) was experimentally investigated for magnetic random access memory applications. The films were deposited by magnetron sputtering. For a Ta/Ni81Fe19/Ta fundamental structure, Ta seed and Ta cap layers resulted in a loss of moment equivalent to a magnetically dead layer of thickness 1.6±0.2nm. In order to find the mechanism, the composition and chemical states at the interface regions of Ta/Ni81Fe19 and Ni81Fe19/Ta were studied using the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and peak decomposition technique. The results show that there are thermodynamically favorable reactions at the Ta/Ni81Fe19 and Ni81Fe19/Ta interfaces: 2Ta+Ni=NiTa2.
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| Keywords:
75.70.Cn
82.80.Pv
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Published: 01 September 2002
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| PACS: |
75.70.Cn
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(Magnetic properties of interfaces (multilayers, superlattices, heterostructures))
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82.80.Pv
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(Electron spectroscopy (X-ray photoelectron (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), etc.))
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