Electric field control of magnetic anisotropy in the easy cone state of Ta/Pt/CoFeB/MgO structures

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 109; no. 1
• Main Authors: Park, Kyung-Woong, Park, June-Young, Baek, Seung-heon Chris, Kim, Dae-Hoon, Seo, Soo-Man, Chung, Sung-Woong, Park, Byong-Guk
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 04-07-2016
• Subjects: Applied physics; Bias; Electric fields; Electronics; Magnesium oxide; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetization; Polarity; Power consumption; Tantalum
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4955451

The electric-field control of magnetic anisotropy is of particular interest because it allows the manipulation of the magnetization direction in spintronic devices with high performance and low power consumption. In this work, we investigate the effect of an electric field on the magnetic anisotropy in Ta/Pt/CoFeB/MgO structures, whose easy axis of magnetization is canted from the z-axis, forming a cone state. When an electric field is applied to the sample, its anisotropy constants change, thus modulating the cone state. It is demonstrated that the cone angle is controlled between 22° and 32° by a bias field of 4 MV/cm and that it can persist even after removing the bias. Moreover, it fully recovers to the original value when a bias voltage with an opposite polarity is applied. The non-volatile and reversible control of the cone state paves the way towards the utilization of the magnetic cone state in spintronic devices.