Perpendicular Spin-transfer Torque in Asymmetric Magnetic Tunnel Junctions: Material Parameter Dependence

Spin-transfer torque is a useful tool to control the magnetic state in nanostructures. In magnetic tunnel junctions, the spin-transfer torque has two components, the in-plane spin torque and the perpendicular spin torque. While properties of the in-plane spin-transfer torque are relatively well understood, properties of the perpendicular spin-transfer torque still remain controversial. A recent experiment demonstrated that in asymmetric magnetic tunnel junctions, the bias voltage dependence of the perpendicular spin-transfer torque contains both linear and quadratic terms in the bias. However it still remains unexplored how the bias voltage dependence changes as a function of material parameters. In this paper, we systematically investigate the perpendicular spin-transfer torque in asymmetric magnetic tunnel junction by varying spin splitting energy, work function difference, and Fermi energy of the ferromagnetic metal leads.