Interface characterization of Co2MnGe/Rh2CuSn Heusler multilayers

To address the amount of disorder and interface diffusion induced by annealing, all-Heusler multilayer structures, consisting of ferromagnetic Co2MnGe and nonmagnetic Rh2CuSn layers of varying thicknesses, have been investigated by means of hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic ci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics Condensed matter and materials physics, 2013-10, Vol.88 (13), p.134407
Main Authors: Knut, Ronny, Svedlindh, Peter, Mryasov, Oleg, Gunnarsson, Klas, Warnicke, Peter, Arena, D. A., Björck, Matts, Dennison, Andrew J. C., Sahoo, Anindita, Mukherjee, Sumanta, Sarma, Dipankar Das, Granroth, Sari, Gorgoi, Mihaela, Karis, Olof
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Engineering Science with specialization in Solid State Physics
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Teknisk fysik med inriktning mot fasta tillståndets fysik
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Summary:To address the amount of disorder and interface diffusion induced by annealing, all-Heusler multilayer structures, consisting of ferromagnetic Co2MnGe and nonmagnetic Rh2CuSn layers of varying thicknesses, have been investigated by means of hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. We find evidence for a 4 angstrom thick magnetically dead layer that, together with the identified interlayer diffusion, are likely reasons for the unexpectedly small magnetoresistance found for current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance devices based on this all-Heusler system. We find that diffusion begins already at comparably low temperatures between 200 and 250 degrees C, where Mn appears to be most prone to diffusion.
ISSN:1098-0121
1550-235X
1550-235X
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.88.134407