  Ferromagnetic contacts are widely used to inject spin polarized currents into
non-magnetic materials such as semiconductors or 2-dimensional materials like
graphene. In these systems, oxidation of the ferromagnetic materials poses an
intrinsic limitation on device performance. Here we investigate the role of
ex-situ transferred chemical vapour deposited hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as
an oxidation barrier for nanostructured cobalt and permalloy electrodes. The
chemical state of the ferromagnets was investigated using X-ray photoemission
electron microscopy owing to its high sensitivity and lateral resolution. We
have compared the oxide thickness formed on ferromagnetic nanostructures
covered by hBN to uncovered reference structures. Our results show that hBN
reduces the oxidation rate of ferromagnetic nanostructures suggesting that it
could be used as an ultra-thin protection layer in future spintronic devices.
