Reversible and nonvolatile modulation of magnetization switching characteristic in ferromagnetic materials is crucial in developing spintronic devices with low power consumption. It is recently discovered that strain engineering can be an active and effective approach in tuning the magnetic/transport properties of thin films. The primary method in strain modulation is via the converse piezoelectric effect of ferroelectrics, which is usually volatile due to the reliance of the required electric field. Also the maximum amount of deformation in ferroelectrics is usually limited to be less than 1%, and the corresponding magnetoelastic strain energy introduced to ferromagnetic films is on the order of 10(4) J/m(3), not enough to overcome magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (Ku) in many materials. Different from using conventional strain inducing substrates, this paper reports on the significantly large, reversible, and nonvolatile lattice strain in the L10-FePt films (up to 2.18%) using nonelectrically controlled shape memory alloy substrates. Introduced lattice strain can be large enough to effectively affect domain structure and magnetic reversal in FePt. A noticeable decrease of coercivity field by 80% is observed. Moreover, the coercivity field tunability using such substrates is nonvolatile at room temperature and is also reversible due to the characteristics of the shape memory effect. This finding provides an efficient avenue for developing strain assisted spintronic devices such as logic memory device, magnetoresistive random-access memory, and memristor.
Tuning the lattice strain (εL) is a novel approach to manipulate the magnetic, electronic, and transport properties of spintronic materials. Achievable εL in thin film samples induced by traditional ferroelectric or flexible substrates is usually volatile and well below 1%. Such limits in the tuning capability cannot meet the requirements for nonvolatile applications of spintronic materials. This study answers to the challenge of introducing significant amount of elastic strain in deposited thin films so that noticeable tuning of the spintronic characteristics can be realized. Based on subtle elastic strain engineering of depositing L10-FePt films on pre-stretched NiTi(Nb) shape memory alloy substrates, steerable and nonvolatile lattice strain up to 2.18% has been achieved in the L10-FePt films by thermally controlling the shape memory effect of the substrates. Introduced strains at this level significantly modify the electronic density of state, orbital overlap, and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) strength in the FePt film, leading to nonvolatile modulation of magnetic anisotropy and magnetization reversal characteristics. This finding not only opens an efficient avenue for the nonvolatile tuning of SOC based magnetism and spintronic effects, but also helps to clarify the physical nature of pure strain effect.
To reveal the underlying mechanism of Mg influence on the enhanced post-annealing stability of perpendicular Ta/CoFeB/Mg/MgO multilayers, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis has been performed. It is found that a certain amount of Mg interlayer at the CoFeB/MgO interface could prevent the Ta oxidation, and consequently lower the diffusion motivation of Ta from the bottom layer to the CoFeB/MgO interfaces to some extent in the annealing process. The prevention of Ta diffusion realizes the effective hybridization of Fe and O at the CoFeB/MgO interface and maintains interfacial magnetic anisotropy (K CoFeB/MgO). As a result, the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at high annealing temperatures is maintained.
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