Electric-field control of interfacial in-plane magnetic anisotropy in CoFeB/MgO junctions

Magnetoelectric coupling in metal/oxide heterostructures has opened up the possibility of controlling magnetization by voltage, i.e., electric field. However, the electric-field excitation of magnetization dynamics in perfectly in-plane and out-of-plane magnetized films have not been demonstrated so far due to zero electric-field torque originating from voltage control of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This limits the application of voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in magnetic field free control of magnetization dynamics. Here we show that magnetic annealing can induce an interfacial in-plane magnetic anisotropy of CoFeB/MgO junctions, thereby controlling the symmetry of interfacial magnetic anisotropy. The magnetic anisotropy is modulated by applying voltage: a negative bias voltage increases perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, while a positive bias voltage decreases perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and increases the in-plane magnetic anisotropy. Such a control of symmetry of the interfacial magnetic anisotropy by magnetic annealing and its tunability by electric fields is useful for developing purely voltage-controlled spintronic devices.