Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) of epitaxial permalloy thin films grown on MgO (001) substrates is investigated. The longitudinal conductivity independent term (i.e., the sum of intrinsic and side-jump contributions) of the anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) is found to be much smaller than those of Fe and Ni films. Band theoretical calculations of the intrinsic AHC as a function of the number of valence electrons (band filling) indicate that the AHC of the permalloy is in the vicinity of sign change, thus resulting in the smallness of the intrinsic AHC. The contribution of the phonon scattering is found to be comparable to that of the impurity scattering. This work suggests that the permalloy films are ideal systems to understand the AHE mechanisms induced by impurity scattering.

Heusler compound Mn2CoAl (MCA) is attracting more attentions due to many novel properties, such as high resistance, semiconducting behavior and suggestion as a spin-gapless material with a low magnetic moment. In this work, Mn2CoAl epitaxial thin film was prepared on MgO(100) substrate by magnetron sputtering. The transport property of the film exhibits a semiconducting-like behavior. Moreover, our research reveals that perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) can be induced in very thin Mn2CoAl films resulting from Mn-O and Co-O bonding at Mn2CoAl/MgO interface, which coincides with a recent theoretical prediction. PMA and low saturation magnetic moment could lead to large spin-transfer torque with low current density in principle, and thus our work may bring some unanticipated Heusler compounds into spintronics topics such as the domain wall motion and the current-induced magnetization reversal.

A proximity effect of spin orbit coupling (SOC) is proposed in nonmagnetic metal/ferromagnet (NM/FM) bilayers by extending the Crépieux-Bruno (CB) theory. We demonstrate that over 1000% enhancement of the SOC strength can be realized based on this effect (Pt/FM bilayers) and it brings greatly enhanced anomalous Hall effect and anomalous Nernst effect. This work could help maximize the performance of magnetic transport property for the spintronics device using NM/FM as the key structure.

There are two mechanisms which could enhance spin-dependent scattering in a low dimensional Pt/Ferromagnetic metal structure. One is magnetic proximity effect. The other is spin orbit coupling proximity effect which was suggested recently. This work demonstrates that, through a series of experiments on anomalous Hall effect, the spin orbit coupling proximity effect dominates the enhancement in very thin Pt/Permalloy bilayers. It may help to find a way to optimize magnetic transport property of spintronics devices in which the spin orbit coupling is deeply involved.

a b s t r a c tSpin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) is observed in an ultrathin Co 2 FeAl layer covered by a thin Pt film. The Co 2 FeAl layer grown on a MgO substrate should be too thin to be continuous. The result reveals that the magnetic insulator layer, such as yttrium iron garnet (YIG) substrate which is frequently used so far, is actually not a requisite for the observation of SMR. This work may greatly help to understand the true nature of SMR effect.

Epitaxial intrinsic and Fe-doped CoTiSb thin films with C1b structure were grown on MgO(100) substrates by magnetron sputtering. The semiconducting-like behavior in both intrinsic and Fe-doped thin films was demonstrated by temperature dependence of longitudinal resistivity. The Fe-doped CoTiSb films with a wide range of doping concentrations can maintain semiconducting-like and magnetic properties simultaneously, while the semiconducting behavior is weakening with the increasing Fe concentration. For 21 at. % Fe-doped film, low lattice magnetic moment (around 0.65 μB) and high resistivity (larger than 800 μΩ cm) are beneficial to its application as a magnetic electrode in spintronic devices. Anomalous Hall effect of 21 at. % Fe-doped film was also investigated and its behaviors can be treated well by recent-reported anomalous Hall scaling including the contribution of spin-phonon skew scattering.

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was observed in Pt/Co/Pt trilayers prepared on three kinds of paper substrates with conspicuous difference of roughness by sputtering. Anomalous Hall effect exhibits well magnetic transport properties for partial samples. The trends of Hall resistivity over longitudinal resistivity (ρAH/ρxx) versus ρxx are bending instead of a traditional linear relationship for thick single-layer Co films. Further, study reveals that this behavior strongly depends on ratios among contributions from the skew scattering induced by residual resistance and phonons, the side jump and the intrinsic parts in anomalous Hall effect. A 3D map of correlation coefficients (R) of ρAH/ρxx and ρxx shows the ratios locate at a critical and ultra-narrow area for our trilayers. This study may throw new light on the understanding of anomalous Hall effect as well as lead to an economical and practical method to fabricate Hall devices on flexible substrates.

In this work, through controlling spin scattering mechanisms, anomalous Hall behaviors exhibit a series of evolutions in thin Pt/Co/Pt trilayers. The shape of Hall resistivity over longitudinal resistivity (ρ AH /ρ xx versus ρ xx) curve turns from bending to linear and then bending again in most trilayers. This kind of evolution cannot be explained by the conventional linear scaling of anomalous Hall effect. It should be ascribed to the contribution of spin-phonon skew scattering. Our research may help to understand spin scattering behavior in low-dimensional systems more deeply and build a proper synergy between theory and experiment on the research of anomalous Hall effect.