Atomic-Layer Alignment Tuning for Giant Perpendicular Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy of $3d$ Transition-Metal Thin Films

Atomic-Layer Alignment Tuning for Giant Perpendicular Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy of $3 d$ Transition-Metal Thin Films

K. Hotta, K. Nakamura, T. Akiyama, T. Ito, T. Oguchi, and A. J. Freeman

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 267206 – Published 28 June 2013

Abstract

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MA) of Fe-based transition-metal thin films, consisting of only magnetic $3 d$ elements, was systematically investigated from full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave calculations. The results predict that giant MA with a perpendicular magnetic easy axis (PMA) can be achieved by tuning the atomic-layer alignments in an Fe-Ni thin film. This giant PMA arises from the spin-orbit coupling interaction between occupied and unoccupied Ni $d_{x^{2} - y^{2}, x y}$ bands crossing the Fermi level. A promising $3 d$ transition-metal thin film for the MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions with the giant PMA was, thus, demonstrated.

Received 27 February 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.267206

Authors & Affiliations

K. Hotta¹, K. Nakamura^1,*, T. Akiyama¹, T. Ito¹, T. Oguchi², and A. J. Freeman³

¹Department of Physics Engineering, Mie University, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan
²The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA