Microstructure of ultrathin Pt/Co/Pt film system with magnetic properties tailored by irradiation

The ultrathin Pt/Co/Pt trilayer films with tunable magnetization direction are of particular importance for spintronics [1,2]. It was previously evidenced that the out-of-plane to in-plane magnetization reorientation phase transition, (RPT) can be induced in this system by irradiation with ether light beams of various characteristics of fluency, pulse duration and spectral properties (from optical lasers up to XUV sources) or by a shallow implantation with Ga + ions. The observed magnetic properties have been considered to be related mainly with the structural characteristics of interfaces of the layered structure [3]. The structural investigation of a Pt/Co/Pt treated with ion irradiation, using an X-ray diffraction and other scattering techniques, has shown an intermixing and disordering at the Co–Pt interfaces leading to a reduction of the anisotropy, coercivity, and Curie temperature [4].