Effect of the underlayer on the elastic parameters of the CoFeB/MgO heterostructures

Abstract

Abstract We investigated the thermally induced surface acoustic waves in CoFeB/MgO heterostructures with different underlayer materials. Our results show a direct correlation between the density and elastic parameters of the underlayer materials and the surface phonon dispersion. Using finite element method-based simulations, we calculate the effective elastic parameters (such as elastic tensor, Young’s modulus, and Poisson’s ratio) for multilayers with different underlayer materials. The simulation results, either considering the elastic parameters of individual layers or considering the effective elastic parameters of whole stacks, exhibit good agreement with the experimental data. This study will help us deepen our understanding of phonon properties and their interactions with other quasiparticles or magnetic textures with the help of these estimated elastic properties.

Keywords

• Brillouin light scattering
• CoFeB thin film
• Surface acoustic waves
• Elastic parameters
• Underlayer material