  Extraordinary Hall effect and X-ray spectroscopy measurements have been
performed on a series of Pt/Co/MOx trilayers (M=Al, Mg, Ta...) in order to
investigate the role of oxidation in the onset of perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy at the Co/MOx interface. It is observed that varying the oxidation
time modifies the magnetic properties of the Co layer, inducing a magnetic
anisotropy crossover from in-plane to out-of-plane. We focused on the influence
of plasma oxidation on Pt/Co/AlOx perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The
interfacial electronic structure is analyzed via X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy measurements. It is shown that the maximum of out-of-plane
magnetic anisotropy corresponds to the appearance of a significant density of
Co-O bondings at the Co/AlOx interface.
