Electric modulation of anisotropic magnetoresistance in Pt/HfO2–x /NiO y /Ni heterojunctions

Abstract

Electric field control of magnetism through nanoionics has attracted tremendous attention owing to its high efficiency and low power consumption. In solid-state dielectrics, an electric field drives the redistribution of ions to create one-dimensional magnetic conductive nanostructures, enabling the realization of intriguing magnetoresistance (MR) effects. Here, we explored the electric-controlled nickel and oxygen ion migration in Pt/HfO2−x /NiO y /Ni heterojunctions for MR modulation. By adjusting the voltage polarity and amplitude, the magnetic conductive filaments with mixed nickel and oxygen vacancy are constructed. This results in the reduction of device resistance by ∼103 folds, and leads to an intriguing partial asymmetric MR effect. We show that the difference of the device resistance under positive and negative saturation magnetic fields exhibits good linear dependence on the magnetic field angle, which can be used for magnetic field direction detection. Our study suggests the potential of electrically controlled ion migration in creating novel magnetic nanostructures for sensor applications.