Magnetoresistance of heavy and light metal/ferromagnet bilayers
- Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Hönggerbergring 64, CH-8093 Zürich (Switzerland)
We studied the magnetoresistance of normal metal (NM)/ferromagnet (FM) bilayers in the linear and nonlinear (current-dependent) regimes and compared it with the amplitude of the spin-orbit torques and thermally induced electric fields. Our experiments reveal that the magnetoresistance of the heavy NM/Co bilayers (NM = Ta, W, and Pt) is phenomenologically similar to the spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) of YIG/Pt, but has a much larger anisotropy of the order of 0.5%, which increases with the atomic number of the NM. This SMR-like behavior is absent in light NM/Co bilayers (NM = Ti and Cu), which present the standard anisotropic magnetoresistance expected from polycrystalline FM layers. In the Ta, W, and Pt/Co bilayers, we find an additional magnetoresistance directly proportional to the current and to the transverse component of the magnetization. This so-called unidirectional SMR, of the order of 0.005%, is largest in W and correlates with the amplitude of the antidamping spin-orbit torque. The unidirectional SMR is below the accuracy of our measurements in YIG/Pt.
- OSTI ID:
- 22486053
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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