Abstract
Magnesium oxide-based magnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy are receiving increasing attention for their applications in building high-density magnetic random memories. To obtain high thermal stability and flexible data writability, a large and tunable magnetic anisotropy constant (Ki) is required. In this paper, Ki is calculated for MgO/PtMnAs heterostructures with two different interfacial configurations using first-principles calculations. The MgO/AsMn_Pt heterostructure with interfacial atoms of Mn/As has a larger Ki of 4.74 mJ/m2. It is further found that a unilateral voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy coefficient (VCMA) of 616 fJ/Vm is produced when the electric field is below − 0.2 V/nm for the MgO/AsMn_Pt heterostructure. The most significant contribution of the VCMA results from the Pt layers. The origin of these behaviors is analyzed by orbital-resolved magnetic anisotropy energy. The spin–orbit coupling of the dz2/dyz orbitals of Pt atoms is responsible for the Ki variation with voltage. This study offers a useful guide to designing magnesium oxide-based magnetic heterostructures with high and tunable magnetic anisotropy.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Open Project of the National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University (Grant no. M35049) and the School Scientific Research Project of Hangzhou Dianzi University (Grant nos. KYS045619084, KYS045619085), Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang (no. GK229909299001-005), and Zhejiang Province Public Welfare Projects of China, Food Science and Engineering, the Most Important Discipline of Zhejiang Province (no. LGG22F030017).
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YH: investigation, formal analysis, writing—original draft. SY: methodology, investigation, conceptualization, writing—review and editing. SG: validation, formal analysis. CZ: validation, formal analysis. WQ: validation, formal analysis. RB: validation, formal analysis. TZ: supervision, writing—review and editing.
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Hu, Y., Yan, S., Gao, S. et al. Voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in MgO/PtMnAs heterostructures. Appl. Phys. A 129, 704 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-023-06996-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-023-06996-1