Contributions of Co and Fe orbitals to perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of MgO/CoFeB bilayers with Ta, W, IrMn, and Ti underlayers

We study the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of the CoFeB/MgO bilayers in contact with W, Ta, IrMn, and Ti, which have been suggested for use as the spin–orbit-torque-related underlayers. The saturation magnetization of CoFeB depends on the underlayer material used owing to the formation of a dead layer that affects the PMA strength of each film. The X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurement reveals that interfacial intermixing suppresses only the perpendicular orbital moment of Fe, whereas it simultaneously suppresses both the perpendicular and in-plane orbital moments of Co.