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In this work, tungsten thin films were deposited on different substrates by magnetron sputtering and some of the films were then annealed at 1000°C for 1 hour in order to investigate the influence of different processing parameters on morphology and microstructure of films. Scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction were used to detect the morphology and microstructure of films. Under the same conditions, the thin films on different substrates showed different preferred grain orientations although the morphologies were similar. After thermal treatment, the morphology of films changed significantly and the total stress parallel to film surfaces dropped off sharply.

The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of a series of top MgO/CoFeB/W stacks were studied. In these stacks, the thickness of CoFeB is limited in a range of 1.1–2.2 nm. It was found that the stack can still maintain PMA in a 1.9 nm thick CoFeB free layer. Besides, we investigated the thermal stability factor ∆ of a spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) by inserting an ultra-thin W film of 0.8 nm between two CoFeB films. The result shows a clear PMA behavior for the samples with CoFeB thickness up to 2.5 nm, and an in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA) when the CoFeB is thicker than 2.5 nm. Moreover, the thermal stability factor ∆ of the CoFeB stack with W insertion is about 132 for a 50 nm size STT-MRAM device, which is remarkably improved compared to 112 for a sample without W insertion. Our results represent an alternative way to realize the endurance at high annealing temperature, high-density and high ∆ in STT-MRAM device by ultra-thin W insertion.

Ultrathin [Co/Pt] n superlattice films consisting of 0.18–0.60-nm-thick Co and Pt sublayers were deposited by sputtering. A large in-plane saturation field (H s) of ∼39 kOe and a very large effective perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (K eff) with a magnitude of 107 erg/cm3 were attained. The highest K eff was ∼1.40 × 107 erg/cm3. These films are promising candidates for the reference layer of the p-MgO magnetic tunnel junction in Gb-scale magnetic random-access memory.

A detailed study of the magnetic characterizations of the top structure MgO/CoFeB/Mo is presented. The samples show strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) when the thickness of CoFeB is 0.9 nm and 1.1 nm. The saturation magnetic moment and interface anisotropy constant are 1566 emu/cm3 and 3.75 erg/cm2, respectively. The magnetic dead layer (MDL) is about 0.23 nm in this system. Furthermore, strong capping layer thickness dependence is also observed. The strong PMA of 1.1 nm CoFeB only exists in a Mo cap layer thickness window of 1.2–2 nm. To maintain PMA, the metal layer could not be too thin or thick in these multilayers. The oxidation and diffusion of the metal capping layer should be respectively responsibility for the degradation of PMA in these thin or thick metal capping layer samples.

The dependence of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) on the barrier layer MgO thickness in MgO/CoFeB/Ta multilayers is investigated. The results show that the strongest PMA occurs in a small window of about 2–4 nm with the increase of MgO thickness from 1–10 nm. The crystalline degree of MgO and the change of interatomic distance along the out-of-plane direction may be the main reasons for the change of PMA in these multilayers. Moreover, the roughnesses of 2- and 4-nm-thick MgO samples are 3.163 and 1.8 nm, respectively, and both the samples show PMA. These results could be used to tune the magnetic characteristic of the ultra thin CoFeB film for future applications in perpendicular magnetic devices.