Tunnel anisotropic magnetoresistance in CoFeB|MgO|Ta junctions

Abstract

We found that CoFeB|MgO|Ta tunnel junctions exhibit tunnel anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) at room temperature. The tunnel junctions exhibit positive magnetoresistance with the application of a magnetic field normal to the film plane. The dependencies on the applied magnetic field angle and MgO thickness reveal that the magnetoresistance originates from the TAMR, caused by the spin polarization and the spin-orbit interaction at the CoFeB|MgO interface. We also found that the TAMR can be used to detect ferromagnetic resonance in the CoFeB. This detection method could be useful for the characterization of nanomagnets that are free from the spin-transfer effect and the stray field of a reference layer, unlike conventional magnetic tunnel junctions.