Epitaxial growth of L10-FePt/MgO/L10-FePt (001) trilayer structures

Abstract Epitaxial growth of L1 0 -FePt/MgO/L1 0 -FePt (0 0 1) trilayer structures on an Au (0 0 1) monocrystalline buffer layer was investigated. By post-annealing at 500 °C, flat Au (0 0 1) buffer layers with roughness of Ra∼0.1 nm were obtained on a 10-nm-thick Fe (0 0 1) seed layer. Despite a large lattice mismatch between L1 0 -FePt and MgO (∼10%), fully epitaxial growth of L1 0 -FePt/MgO/L1 0 -FePt (0 0 1) trilayers was achieved on the Au buffer layer, suggesting that the combination of L1 0 -FePt and MgO is useful for fabrication of perpendicularly magnetized magnetic tunnel junctions.