Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 28: Spin-dependent Transport Phenomena
MA 28.14: Talk
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 18:45–19:00, H3
Magnetic anisotropy and tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in 3d-5d bimetallic antiferromagnets Mn2Au and MnIr. — •Alexander Shick1, Sergii Khmelevskiy2, Joerg Wunderlich3, and Tomas Jungwirth1, 4 — 1Institute of Physics ASCR, Praha, Czech Republic — 2Wien Univ. of Technology, Wien, Austria — 3Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, Cambridge, UK — 4Univ. of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Full-potential relativistic density functional theory is employed to study the magnetic anisotropy energies (MAE) and tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) in the 3d-5d bimetallic antiferromagnets Mn2Au and MnIr. The electronic and magnetic structure are calculated making use of the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave FP-LAPW method. The torque approach is employed to evaluate the element-specific MAE. We find strong uniaxial MAE and attribute these anisotropies to combined effects of large moment on the Mn 3d shell and large spin-orbit coupling of the 5d shell. The sizable TAMR ratio (up to 50 %) associated with the strong uniaxial MAE is evaluated assuming its proportionality to the anisotropy in the density of states. Furthermore, we apply the in-plane strain in Mn2Au and find sizable changes in the MAE and TAMR. Based on these results we propose a concept for building spintronics in compensated antiferromagnets in which the staggered moment orientation is controlled via the response of the MAE to induced lattice strains and sensed by antiferromagnetic TAMR in nanoscale devices.