Electric field dependence of the giant magnetic anisotropy of Ru monolayer on MgO(001) substrate

Magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of a Ru monolayer on MgO(001) substrate under the application of an electric field is investigated by using first-principles calculations. Owing to the large spin orbit coupling in Ru atoms, both MAE and its rate of change against electric field are about 3 times as large as those of an Fe monolayer on MgO(001) substrate. The change rate of MAE of Ru/MgO has an opposite sign to that of Fe/MgO, which originates from the modification of the band structure near the Fermi energy around (Gamma) over bar point caused by the application of an electric field. (C) 2017 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).