English

Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2019-09-04 v1

Abstract

Using a simple quantum-mechanical model, we explore a tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) effect in ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) with a ferromagnetic electrode and a ferroelectric barrier layer, which spontaneous polarization gives rise to the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (SOC). For realistic parameters of the model, we predict sizable TAMR measurable experimentally. For asymmetric FTJs, which electrodes have different work functions, the built-in electric field affects the SOC parameters and leads to TAMR dependent on ferroelectric polarization direction. The SOC change with polarization switching affects tunneling conductance, revealing a new mechanism of tunneling electroresistance (TER). These results demonstrate new functionalities of FTJs which can be explored experimentally and used in electronic devices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.13676,
  title  = {Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions},
  author = {A. Alexandrov and M. Ye. Zhuravlev and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.13676},
  year   = {2019}
}