Enhanced magnetization at the Cr/MgO(001) interface

M.-A. Leroy (1, 2) , A. M. Bataille (1) , Qiang Wang (3) , M. R. Fitzsimmons (3) , F. Bertran (4) , P. Le Fevre (4) , A. Taleb-Ibrahimi (4) , Adriana Vlad (4) , A. Coati (4) , Yves Garreau (5) , T. Hauet (2) , Christophe Gatel (6) , F. Ott (1) , S. Andrieu (2)

1 LLB - UMR 12 - Laboratoire Léon Brillouin
2 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour
3 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
4 SSOLEIL - Synchrotron SOLEIL
5 MPQ (UMR_7162) - Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques
6 CEMES-I3EM - Interférométrie, In situ et Instrumentation pour la Microscopie Electronique

We report on the magnetization at the Cr/MgO interface, which we studied through two complementary techniques: angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and polarized neutron reflectivity. We experimentally observe an enhanced interface magnetization at the interface, yet with values much smaller than the ones reported so far by theoretical and experimental studies on Cr(001) surfaces. Our findings cast some doubts on the interpretations on previous works and could be useful in antiferromagnetic spin torque studies.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

M.-A. Leroy, A. M. Bataille, Qiang Wang, M. R. Fitzsimmons, F. Bertran, et al.. Enhanced magnetization at the Cr/MgO(001) interface. Applied Physics Letters, 2015, 107 (25), pp.251602. ⟨10.1063/1.4938131⟩. ⟨hal-01707387⟩