Interface perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Fe/MgAl 2 O 4 layered structures

The recently reported MgAl 2 O 4 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 MgAl 2 O 4 ‐based MTJs. In this study, we demonstrated large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) arising from the interfaces of Fe(001)/MgAl 2 O 4 layered structures, which can be useful for developing perpendicularly magnetized MgAl 2 O 4 ‐based MTJs. A PMA energy density of 0.4 MJ/m 3 was achieved for an epitaxially grown 0.7 nm thick Fe/MgAl 2 O 4 (001). Interestingly, the interface PMA was also obtained for the Fe/non‐epitaxially grown MgAl 2 O 4 structures, which indicates that the crystallographic structure of MgAl 2 O 4 layer has no critical influence on the obtained PMA.Large interface perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in the epitaxially grown Fe (0.7 nm)/MgAl 2 O 4 layered structure (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)