Interfacial tuning of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and spin magnetic moment in CoFe/Pd multilayers

We report on a strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in [CoFe 0.4 nm/Pd t](6) (t=1.0-2.0 nm) multilayers fabricated by DC sputtering in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber. Saturation magnetization, M-s, and uniaxial anisotropy, K-u, of the multilayers decrease with increasing the spacing thickness; with a M-s of 155 emu/cc and a K-u of 1.14 x 10(5) J/m(3) at a spacing thickness of t=2 nm. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal that spin and orbital magnetic moments of Co and Fe in CoFe film decrease as a function of Pd thickness, indicating the major contribution of surface/interfacial magnetism to the magnetic properties of the film. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.