Extrinsic tunnel Hall effect in CoFeB/MgO/Pt junctions

Abstract

The Hall effect that occurs when current flows through a CoFeB/MgO/Pt tunnel junction is investigated. It is shown that the transverse voltage in Pt electrode is nonlinear on a DC voltage applied to the tunnel junction. It has both linear (odd) and quadratic (even) parts. The linear part contains well-known contributions of the anomalous Hall effect in the ferromagnetic electrode, inverse spin-hall effect in platinum and others. The quadratic part is a phenomenon caused by the spin-orbit scattering of electrons in an external electric field induced by a voltage applied to the barrier. This field reaches values of 10 9 V/m which is close to internal atomic fields. The magnitude of both effects decreases as thickness of Pt electrode is increased due to shunting effects.