Magneto-ionic control of perpendicular anisotropy in epitaxial Mn4N films

Abstract

We report reversible control of the magnetism and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in Mn4N thin films through solid-state magneto-ionic gating. We grow Mn4N on MgO(100) substrates, exhibiting bulk-like magnetization and strain-induced PMA, also promoted by capping the film with material with large spin–orbit coupling. We demonstrate that the interfacial anisotropy can be reversibly tuned through voltage-driven nitrogen ion migration when Mn4N is in contact with a nitrogen-affine metal, such as Ta and V. We also show that solid-state gating effectively enhances the spin–orbit torque switching efficiency by reducing the coercive field without compromising the interface transparency. Finally, we demonstrate that gate-tunable devices can be harnessed for efficient nonvolatile memory functionality.