Highly efficient voltage control of spin and enhanced interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in iridium-doped Fe/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

Voltage control of spin enables both a zero standby power and ultralow active power consumption in spintronic devices, such as magnetoresistive random-access memory devices. A practical approach to achieve voltage control is the electrical modulation of the spin–orbit interaction at the interface between 3d-transition-ferromagnetic-metal and dielectric layers in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). However, we need to initiate a new guideline for materials design to improve both the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Here we report that atomic-scale doping of iridium in an ultrathin Fe layer is highly effective to improving these properties in Fe/MgO-based MTJs. A large interfacial PMA energy, Ki,0, of up to 3.7 mJ m−2 was obtained, which was 1.8 times greater than that of the pure Fe/MgO interface. Moreover, iridium doping yielded a huge VCMA coefficient (up to 320 fJ Vm−1) as well as high-speed response. First-principles calculations revealed that Ir atoms dispersed within the Fe layer play a considerable role in enhancing Ki,0 and the VCMA coefficient. These results demonstrate the efficacy of heavy-metal doping in ferromagnetic layers as an advanced approach to develop high-density voltage-driven spintronic devices. Researchers from Japan's AIST demonstrated a new approach to reduce the energy consumption of spintronic devices. Magnetic random-access memory requires approximately 10,000 times more energy to record data than to safely maintain it — a discrepancy that arises due to the wastefulness of electric-current-based switching of magnetic bits. Takayuki Nozaki and colleagues now report a device that enables us to write magnetic memory using electric fields, a more energy-efficient control mechanism. The team introduced an iridium-doped ultrathin iron film in magnesium oxide-based magnetic tunnel junctions, and found that the heavy-metal dopants provoked a strong voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy change with high-speed response. Physical role of heavy metal dopants was unveiled by first-principles calculations. The developed technique can lead to a new type of non-volatile memory with ultra-low energy consumption. Highly efficient voltage control of magnetic anisotropy has been demonstrated utlizing an ultrathin Ir-doped Fe layer in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions. Ir adoms are dispersed inside the ultrathin Fe layer through the interdiffusion process. Large spin–orbit interaction of Ir atoms having proximity-induced magnetism is attributed to the enhancement of the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect. High speed response of the VCMA effect was also confirmed by voltage-induced ferromagnetic resonance. The achieved properties first satisfy the required specification for the new type of magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) driven by voltage.