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First-principles investigation of magnetocrystalline anisotropy oscillation in Co2FeAl/Ta heterostructure


Junfeng Qiao, Shouzhong Peng, Youguang Zhang, Hongxin Yang, Weisheng Zhao
(Submitted on 6 Dec 2017)

We report first-principles investigations on magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MCAE) oscillation as a function of capping layer thickness in Heusler alloy Co

2
FeAl/Ta heterostructure. Substantial oscillation is observed in the structure with FeAl-interface. According to
k
-space and wave function analysis, this oscillation is mainly attributed to the Fermi-energy-vicinal majority-spin quantum well states (QWS) which are confined between Co

2
FeAl/Ta interface and Ta/vacuum surface. The vanishing of QWS in the structure with Co-interface can be explained by the smooth potential transition at the interface. These findings clarify that MCAE in Co

2
FeAl/Ta is not a local property of the interface and that the quantum well effect plays a dominant role in MCAE oscillation of the heterostructure. This work presents the possibility of tuning MCAE by QWS in capping layers, and paves the way for artificially controlling magnetic anisotropy energy in magnetic tunnel junctions.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.02139