Perpendicular magnetization of CoFeB on top of an amorphous buffer layer

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was observed in sputtered FeZr/CoFeB/MgO multilayers. A thin paramagnetic amorphous FeZr layer was used as a buffer layer and perpendicular anisotropy was obtained by annealing the samples without an external magnetic field. The critical CoFeB thickness for perpendicular anisotropy was 1.8 nm; the anisotropy changes from out-of-plane to in-plane as the CoFeB thickness increases beyond this point. Perpendicular anisotropy was also enhanced when a Ta layer was capped on top of the MgO layer. The amorphous buffer provided better perpendicular anisotropy than previously reported Ta buffer, and it may be applied to perpendicular magnetization MRAM devices where good uniformity of tunnel junctions is required.