Large phase-transition-induced magnetic anisotropy change in (Co/Pt)2/VO2 heterostructure.

We report the phase-transition controlled magnetic anisotropy modulation in the (Co/Pt)2/VO2 heterostructure, where VO2 is introduced into the system to applied an interfacial strain by its metal-insulator transition. A large reversible modulation of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) reaching 38 kJ/m3 is observed during this process. The calculated energy density variation of interfacial anisotropy reaches 100 mJ/m2, which shows significant advantage over traditional modulation strategies. Further experimental results including magnetization change versus temperature, strain buffered modulation and pre-strained sample comparison prove that the interfacial coupling between VO2 and PMA layers plays a crucial role in this modulation. This work, demonstrating the great potential of phase-transition material in efficient magnetic anisotropy modulation, would benefit the exploration for low-power consumption devices.