Thickness Dependent Structural and Magnetic Properties Investigation of Co Film Interfaced with Hf

Thickness dependent structural and magnetic properties of Co films interfaced with Hf have been studied. X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD) provides the structural properties of as-deposited samples. Film thicknesses as observed from XRR analysis are further implemented to study the magnetic properties of samples as function of Co film thickness, using magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and polarized neutron reflectivity (PNR). MOKE results show the variation of magnetic coercivity with Co film thickness which exhibits a maximum value around 6 nm. Effective magnetic moment of samples as obtained from PNR fitting displays a linear variation with film thickness. Extrapolation of such variation on thickness axis show presence of magnetically dead layer (MDL) at interface, of thickness below 1 nm, in agreement with the reported values in literature for magnetic films interfaced with 5d heavy metals. Copyright (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.