Insensitivity of tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance to non-magnetic electrodes

摘要

Ferromagnetic electrodes play a crucial role in magnetoresistance effect and spin injection, whereas the essential features of non-magnetic metal electrodes in spintronics are commonly ignored except for their electrical conductivity. Here, we verify that the room-temperature tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) behavior in antiferromagnet-based [Pt/Co]/IrMn/AlO_x/metal (metal = Pt, Au, Cu, Al) junctions is insensitive to the top metal electrodes. Similar out-of-plane signals are detected for different electrodes, in contrast to the varied shapes of in-plane TAMR curves which are most likely attributed to the differences in the multidomain structure of the magnetic electrode. This would add a different dimension to spintronics.