Electronic structure of Fe/MgO/Fe multilayer stack by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

The interface properties of Fe/MgO/Fe multilayer stack were investigated by using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The magnetic multilayers were deposited by electron beam evaporation method, which exhibits the attributes of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). XAS analysis shows that Fe-layer forms a Fe-O-rich interface region with MgO-layer and a sum-rule analysis of the XMCD estimates the average magnetic moment of 2.31 ± 0.1 μB per Fe-atom. XAS and XMCD studies indicate the formation of a heterostructure (Fe/FeO/Fe2O3) on the interface. A phase transition in Fe-O stoichiometry at interface is also observed at low temperature (90 K), which may be useful in magnetic storage technology.