Giant perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Fe/III-V nitride thin films

Journal Article · 30 March 2018 · Science Advances

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar7814 · OSTI ID:1499922

Yu, Jie-Xiang  ^[1]; Zang, Jiadong  ^[2]

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1. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); OSTI
2. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)

Large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in transition metal thin films provides a pathway for enabling the intriguing physics of nanomagnetism and developing broad spintronics applications. After decades of searches for promising materials, the energy scale of PMA of transition metal thin films, unfortunately, remains only about 1 meV. This limitation has become a major bottleneck in the development of ultradense storage and memory devices. We discovered unprecedented PMA in Fe thin-film growth on the ($$000\overline{1}$$) N-terminated surface of III-V nitrides from first-principles calculations. PMA ranges from 24.1 meV/u.c. in Fe/BN to 53.7 meV/u.c. in Fe/InN. Symmetry-protected degeneracy between x² - y² and xy orbitals and its lift by the spin-orbit coupling play a dominant role. As a consequence, PMA in Fe/III-V nitride thin films is dominated by first-order perturbation of the spin-orbit coupling, instead of second-order in conventional transition metal/oxide thin films. This game-changing scenario would also open a new field of magnetism on transition metal/nitride interfaces.

• Research Organization: Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0016424
• OSTI ID: 1499922
• Journal Information: Science Advances, Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 4; ISSN 2375-2548
• Publisher: AAASCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English