Large planar Hall effect in perpendicularly magnetized W/CoFeB/MgO structures

Abstract

The planar Hall effect (PHE) in W/CoFeB/MgO structure with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was investigated as a function of CoFeB thickness (t(CoFeB)). The PHE is measured by sweeping the in-plane magnetic field at various azimuthal angles as well as by rotating strong magnetic field which is enough to saturate the magnetization. We observed a huge PHE in the W/CoFeB/MgO sample, which is even larger than anomalous Hall effect (AHE). This is distinct from the results in Ta/CoFeB/MgO samples showing a much smaller PHE than AHE. Since the PHE is insensitive to the t(CoFeB) while the AHE is proportional to the t(CoFeB), the unprecedented PHE can be attributed to the W layer with a large spin-orbit coupling.