First-principles investigation of the very large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy at Fe|MgO and Co|MgO interfaces

H. X. Yang, M. Chshiev, B. Dieny, J. H. Lee, A. Manchon, and K. H. Shin
Phys. Rev. B 84, 054401 – Published 1 August 2011

Abstract

The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) arising at the interface between ferromagnetic transition metals and metallic oxides was investigated via first-principles calculations. In this work very large values of PMA, up to 3 erg/cm2, at Fe|MgO interfaces are reported, in agreement with recent experiments. The origin of PMA is attributed to overlap between O-pz and transition metal dz2 orbitals hybridized with dxz(yz) orbitals with stronger spin-orbit coupling-induced splitting around the Fermi level for perpendicular magnetization orientation. Furthermore, it is shown that the PMA value weakens in the case of over- or underoxidation due to the fact that oxygen pz and transition metal dz2 orbital overlap is strongly affected by disorder, in agreement with experimental observations in magnetic tunnel junctions.

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  • Received 21 February 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.054401

©2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

H. X. Yang, M. Chshiev*, and B. Dieny

  • SPINTEC, UMR CEA/CNRS/UJF-Grenoble 1/Grenoble-INP, INAC, Grenoble, F-38054, France

J. H. Lee

  • SPINTEC, UMR CEA/CNRS/UJF-Grenoble 1/Grenoble-INP, INAC, Grenoble, F-38054, France, and Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791, Korea

A. Manchon

  • SPINTEC, UMR CEA/CNRS/UJF-Grenoble 1/Grenoble-INP, INAC, Grenoble, F-38054, France, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

K. H. Shin

  • Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791, Korea

  • *mair.chshiev@cea.fr

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Issue

Vol. 84, Iss. 5 — 1 August 2011

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