A comparative ab initio study on electric-field dependence of magnetic anisotropy in MgO/Fe/Pt and MgO/Fe/Au films

We have investigated the electric field (EF) effect on the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) in thin films MgO/Fe/M(001) (M = Au and Pt) by means of first-principles density-functional calculations. The EF dependence of the MAE is enhanced significantly in the film with the Pt substrate compared to that with the Au substrate. This enhancement is attributed to the EF-induced hybridization between Fe 3d- and Pt 5d-orbitals. This implies that the Pt layer stacked on the magnetic layer strengthens the sensitivity of devices for bias-voltage-induced magnetic control. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3540677]