Phys.org  December 27, 2027 FeCo(B) is a current standard magnetic material for perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs). A team of researchers in Japan reported PMA in metastable bcc Co-based alloy, i.e. bcc CoMnFe thin films which were known to exhibit large TMR effect when used for electrodes of MTJs with the MgO barrier. Their ab-initio calculation suggested that PMA originates from tetragonal strain and the value exceeds 1 MJ/m3 with optimizing strain and alloys composition. The simulation of the thermal stability factor indicated that the magnetic properties obtained satisfied the requirement of the data retention performance of X-1X nm STT-MRAM. […]