Anisotropic magneto-resistance in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions induced by spin-orbit coupling

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to analyze the anisotropic magneto-resistance in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions, revealing enhanced TAMR effects influenced by spin-orbit coupling and interface states.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the angular dependence and magnitude of TAMR in MgO-based junctions, emphasizing the role of spin-orbit coupling and interfacial resonant states.

Findings

TAMR can reach around 10% in some junctions.

Angular dependence of TAMR is complex and influenced by spin-orbit coupling.

Interfacial resonant states significantly affect TAMR behavior.

Abstract

We performed a first-principles study of the tunneling anisotropic magneto-resistance (TAMR) in Ag(Ir,Pt)$/$MgO$/$Fe junctions. Enhanced TAMR with ideal and skewed fourfold angular dependence is found in-plane and out-of-plane TAMR of the system, respectively, which shows simple barrier thickness dependency with number around 10\% in some junctions. The complex angular dependency of the interfacial resonant states due to the spin-orbit coupling should be responsible to the complex and enhanced TAMR found in these junctions.