We reveal that the interplay between Rashba spin-orbit coupling and proximity-induced magnetization in a two-dimensional electron gas leads to peculiar transport properties and large anisotropy of magnetoresistance. While the related tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) has been extensively studied before, we predict an effect with a different origin arising from the evolution of a resonant condition with the in-plane rotation of magnetization and having a much larger magnitude. The resonances in the tunneling emerge from a spin-parity-time symmetry of the scattering states. However, such a symmetry is generally absent from the system itself and only appears for certain parameter values. Without resonant behavior in the topological surface states of a proximitized three-dimensional topological insulator (TI), TAMR measurements can readily distinguish them from often misinterpreted trivial Rashba-like states inherent to many TIs.
@article{arxiv.2004.03713,
title = {Resonant Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance Induced by Magnetic Proximity},
author = {Chenghao Shen and Timothy Leeney and Alex Matos-Abiague and Benedikt Scharf and Jong E. Han and Igor Zutic},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.03713},
year = {2020}
}