Highly efficient voltage control of spin and enhanced interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in iridium-doped Fe/MgO magnetic tunnel junctions

Voltage control of spin enables both a zero standby power and ultralow active power consumption in spintronic devices, such as magnetoresistive random-access memory devices. A practical approach to achieve voltage control is the electrical modulation of the spin-orbit interaction at the interface between 3d-transition-ferromagnetic-metal and dielectric layers in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). However, we need to initiate a new guideline for materials design to improve both the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Here we report that atomic-scale doping of iridium in an ultrathin Fe layer is highly effective to improving these properties in Fe/MgO-based MTJs. A large interfacial PMA energy, K(i,0), of up to 3.7 mJ m(-2) was obtained, which was 1.8 times greater than that of the pure Fe/MgO interface. Moreover, iridium doping yielded a huge VCMA coefficient (up to 320 fJ Vm(-1)) as well as high-speed response. First-principles calculations revealed that Ir atoms dispersed within the Fe layer play a considerable role in enhancing K(i,0) and the VCMA coefficient. These results demonstrate the efficacy of heavy-metal doping in ferromagnetic layers as an advanced approach to develop high-density voltage-driven spintronic devices.