TY - JOUR
T1 - Nonlinear electric field effect on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Fe/MgO interfaces
AU - Xiang, Qingyi
AU - Wen, Zhenchao
AU - Sukegawa, Hiroaki
AU - Kasai, Shinya
AU - Seki, Takeshi
AU - Kubota, Takahide
AU - Takanashi, Koki
AU - Mitani, Seiji
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was partly supported by the ImPACT program of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (Cabinet Office, Government of Japan) and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16H06332. A part of this work was performed under the Inter-University Cooperative Research Program of Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University and the JSPS-EPSRC-DFG Core-to-Core Program. QX acknowledges National Institute for Materials Science for the provision of a NIMS Junior Research Assistantship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2017/9/14
Y1 - 2017/9/14
N2 - The electric field effect on magnetic anisotropy was studied in an ultrathin Fe(0 0 1) monocrystalline layer sandwiched between Cr buffer and MgO tunnel barrier layers, mainly through post-annealing temperature and measurement temperature dependences. A large coefficient of the electric field effect of more than 200 fJ (Vm)-1 was observed in the negative range of electric field, as well as an areal energy density of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of around 600 μJ m-2. More interestingly, nonlinear behavior, giving rise to a local minimum around +100 mV nm-1, was observed in the electric field dependence of magnetic anisotropy, being independent of the post-annealing and measurement temperatures. The insensitivity to both the interface conditions and the temperature of the system suggests that the nonlinear behavior is attributed to an intrinsic origin such as an inherent electronic structure in the Fe/MgO interface. The present study can contribute to the progress in theoretical studies, such as ab initio calculations, on the mechanism of the electric field effect on PMA.
AB - The electric field effect on magnetic anisotropy was studied in an ultrathin Fe(0 0 1) monocrystalline layer sandwiched between Cr buffer and MgO tunnel barrier layers, mainly through post-annealing temperature and measurement temperature dependences. A large coefficient of the electric field effect of more than 200 fJ (Vm)-1 was observed in the negative range of electric field, as well as an areal energy density of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of around 600 μJ m-2. More interestingly, nonlinear behavior, giving rise to a local minimum around +100 mV nm-1, was observed in the electric field dependence of magnetic anisotropy, being independent of the post-annealing and measurement temperatures. The insensitivity to both the interface conditions and the temperature of the system suggests that the nonlinear behavior is attributed to an intrinsic origin such as an inherent electronic structure in the Fe/MgO interface. The present study can contribute to the progress in theoretical studies, such as ab initio calculations, on the mechanism of the electric field effect on PMA.
KW - electric field effect
KW - magnetic tunnel junction
KW - magnetoresistance
KW - perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
KW - ultrathin-Fe
KW - voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy
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U2 - 10.1088/1361-6463/aa87ab
DO - 10.1088/1361-6463/aa87ab
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85029897108
VL - 50
JO - Journal Physics D: Applied Physics
JF - Journal Physics D: Applied Physics
SN - 0022-3727
IS - 40
M1 - 40LT04
ER -