Enhancement of in-plane anisotropy in MoS2/CoFeB bilayers

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that integrating MoS2 with CoFeB significantly enhances in-plane magnetic anisotropy and alters domain structures, revealing new ways to tune magnetic properties in TMD-based heterostructures for spintronic applications.

Contribution

It is the first to investigate how MoS2 affects in-plane magnetic anisotropy and domain behavior in CoFeB heterostructures, providing insights into TMD-induced magnetic property modulation.

Findings

MoS2 enhances in-plane magnetic anisotropy in CoFeB.

Magnetic domain structures are significantly modified by MoS2.

Anisotropy increases with MoS2 thickness.

Abstract

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) possess novel properties which makes them potential candidates for various spintronic applications. Heterostructures of TMD with magnetic thin film have been extensively considered for spin-orbital torque, enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy etc. However, the effect of TMD on magnetic anisotropy in heterostructures of in-plane magnetization has not been studied so far. Further the effect of the TMD on the domain structure and magnetization reversal of the ferromagnetic system is another important aspect to be understood. In this context we study the effect of MoS2, a well-studied TMD material, on magnetic properties of CoFeB in MoS2/CoFeB heterostructures. The reference CoFeB film possess a weak in-plane anisotropy. However, when the CoFeB is deposited on MoS2 the in-plane anisotropy is enhanced as observed from magneto optic Kerr effect (MOKE) microscopy as well as ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). Magnetic domain structure and magnetization reversal have also been significantly modified for the MoS2/CoFeB bilayer as compared to the reference CoFeB layer. Frequency and angle dependent FMR measurement show that the magnetic anisotropy of CoFeB increases with increase in thickness of MoS2 in the MoS2/CoFeB heterostructures.