The emergence of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in CoFeB/MgO stacks deposited on W using a Ta buffer layer is studied as a function of Ta and CoFeB layer thickness and annealing temperature. It is shown that very thin Ta “dusting” layers (thickness between 0.3 and 1 nm) enhance PMA of CoFeB layers grown on top of W. We find that Ta thickness is a crucial factor affecting magnetic anisotropy and it needs to be scaled proportionally to CoFeB thickness for obtaining PMA. Stacks without Ta have in-plane anisotropy, verifying the “PMA-enhancing” role of Ta. The maximum effective PMA energy ($3.6\times {10}^6$ erg/cm³) is obtained for a stack with 1.4 nm of CoFeB and 1 nm of Ta and after annealing at $350\hspace{0.17em}°\mathrm{C}$ . Besides, PMA can be obtained even at the as-deposited state for certain thicknesses. This W-based CoFeB/MgO system could enable the development of low power consumption, high density, and non-volatile magnetic memories.

In this work we investigate the potential of tetragonal L10 ordered FeNi as candidate phase for rare earth free permanent magnets taking into account anisotropy values from recently synthesized, partially ordered FeNi thin films. In particular, we estimate the maximum energy product (BH)max of L10-FeNi nanostructures using micromagnetic simulations. The maximum energy product is limited due to the small coercive field of partially ordered L10-FeNi. Nano-structured magnets consisting of 128 equi-axed, platelet-like and columnarshaped grains show a theoretical maximum energy product of 228 kJm􀀀3, 208 kJm􀀀3, 252 kJm􀀀3, respectively.

The effect of arrays of nanometer scale pores on the magnetic properties of thin films has been analyzed. Particularly, we investigated the influence of the out-of-plane magnetization component created by the nanopores on the in-plane magnetic behavior of patterned hard/soft magnetic thin films in antidot morphology. Its influence on the coupling in Co/Py bilayers of few tens of nanometer thick is compared for disordered and ordered antidots of 35-nm diameter. The combination of magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and first-order reversal curve (FORC) technique allows probing the effects of the induced perpendicular magnetization component on the bilayer magnetic behavior, while magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is used to image it. We found that ordered antidots yield a stronger out-of-plane component than disordered ones, influencing in a similar manner the hard layer global in-plane magnetic behavior if with a thin or without soft layer. However, its influence changes with a thicker soft layer, which may be an indication of a weaker coupling.

The fct L1₀-FeNi alloy is a promising candidate for the development of high performance critical-elements-free magnetic materials. Among the different materials, the Au-Cu-Ni alloy has resulted very promising; however, a detailed investigation of the effect of the buffer-layer composition on the formation of the hard FeNi phase is still missing. To accelerate the search of the best Au-Cu-Ni composition, a combinatorial approach based on High-Throughput (HT) experimental methods has been exploited in this paper. HT magnetic characterization methods revealed the presence of a hard magnetic phase with an out-of-plane easy-axis, whose coercivity increases from 0.49 kOe up to 1.30 kOe as the Au content of the Cu-Au-Ni buffer-layer decreases. Similarly, the out-of-plane magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy density increases from 0.12 to 0.35 MJ/m³. This anisotropy is attributed to the partial formation of the L1₀FeNi phase induced by the buffer-layer. In the range of compositions we investigated, the buffer-layer structure does not change significantly and the modulation of the magnetic properties with the Au content in the combinatorial layer is mainly related to the different nature and extent of interlayer diffusion processes, which have a great impact on the formation and order degree of the L1₀FeNi phase.