Electric field control of perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with easy-cone magnetic anisotropic free layers

Weideng Sun; Yike Zhang; Kaihua Cao; Shiyang Lu; Ao Du; Haoliang Huang; Sen Zhang; Chaoqun Hu; Ce Feng; Wenhui Liang; Quan Liu; Shu Mi; Jianwang Cai; Yalin Lu; Weisheng Zhao; Yonggang Zhao

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adj8379

Electric field control of perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with easy-cone magnetic anisotropic free layers

Sci Adv. 2024 Apr 5;10(14):eadj8379. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj8379. Epub 2024 Apr 5.

Authors

Weideng Sun^{1

2}, Yike Zhang^{1

2}, Kaihua Cao³, Shiyang Lu³, Ao Du³, Haoliang Huang^{4

5}, Sen Zhang⁶, Chaoqun Hu^{7

8}, Ce Feng^{1

2}, Wenhui Liang^{1

2}, Quan Liu^{1

2}, Shu Mi^{1

2}, Jianwang Cai^{7

8}, Yalin Lu⁴, Weisheng Zhao³, Yonggang Zhao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
³ Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
⁴ Anhui Laboratory of Advanced Photon Science and Technology and Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
⁵ Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁶ College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China.
⁷ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁸ School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.

Abstract

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) are the core element of spintronic devices. Currently, the mainstream writing operation of MTJs is based on electric current with high energy dissipation, and it can be notably reduced if an electric field is used instead. In this regard, it is promising for electric field control of MTJ in the multiferroic heterostructure composed of MTJ and ferroelectrics via strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling. However, there are only reports on MTJs with in-plane anisotropy so far. Here, we investigate electric field control of the resistance state of MgO-based perpendicular MTJs with easy-cone anisotropic free layers through strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic heterostructures. A remarkable, nonvolatile, and reversible modulation of resistance at room temperature is demonstrated. Through local reciprocal space mapping under different electric fields for Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.7Ti_0.3O₃ beneath the MTJ pillar, the modulation mechanism is deduced. Our work represents a crucial step toward electric field control of spintronic devices with non-in-plane magnetic anisotropy.