CoTaZr/Pd multilayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

We report a novel perpendicularly magnetized thin film [Co91.5Ta4.5Zr4/Pd]5 multilayer, which exhibits strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy when grown on 5 nm of Pd and Ru seed layers. The Pd-seeded multilayer annealed at 300 °C shows an effective uniaxial anisotropy constant, Keff = 1.1 MJ m−3, with an anisotropy field as high as 1.6 T. The perpendicular anisotropy is sustained on annealing at 400 °C for 1 h. X-ray diffraction on multilayers with 30 repeats suggests that the use of amorphous CoTaZr reduces the stress of the stack, compared to [Co/Pd] multilayer.