PRESS RELEASE

Artificial control of the bias-voltage dependence of tunnelling-anisotropic magnetoresistance using quantization in a single-crystal ferromagnet : Professor Masaaki Tanaka, Department of Electrical En

 

Authors

Iriya Muneta, Toshiki Kanaki, Shinobu Ohya & Masaaki Tanaka

 

Abstract

A major issue in the development of spintronic memory devices is the reduction of the power consumption for the magnetization reversal. For this purpose, the artificial control of the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic materials is of great importance. Here, we demonstrate the control of the carrier-energy dependence of the magnetic anisotropy of the density of states (DOS) using the quantum size effect in a single-crystal ferromagnetic material, GaMnAs. We show that the mainly twofold symmetry of the magnetic anisotropy of DOS, which is attributed to the impurity band, is changed to a fourfold symmetry by enhancing the quantum size effect in the valence band of the GaMnAs quantum wells. By combination with the gate electric-field control technique, our concept of the usage of the quantum size effect for the control of the magnetism will pave the way for the ultra-low-power manipulation of magnetization in future spintronic devices.

 

  

Nature Communications : https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15387