Research reveals reversible and non-volatile effects on magnetic anisotropy in crystallized ultra-thin films, suggesting new applications in magneto ionics.
We have investigated electric field (E-field) induced modulation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in both amorphous and crystalline W/CoFeB/MgO/HfO2 ultra-thin films. We find that in the amorphous state, the E-field effect is volatile and reversible, which is consistent with the conventional electrostatic effect through charge accumulation and depletion. In the crystallized system annealed at 370{}C, we find that two effects are at play, a non-volatile and reversible voltage-induced effect on PMA and an electrostatic response. We discuss these results in terms of higher oxygen mobility at the crystallized CoFeB-MgO interface, which induces a non-volatile magnetoionic response. Modulating PMA in crystallized CoFeB-MgO materials through ionic migration opens the path to integrating magneto-ionics in full magnetic tunnel junctions.
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Chen et al. (2025) studied this question.
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