Voltage-Controlled Switching of Magnetic Anisotropy in Ambipolar Mn2CoAl/Pd Bilayers

An ultrahigh electric field induced by ionic liquid gating (ILG) can be employed to manipulate ferromagnetism with low Joule heating dissipation, showing great potential for spintronics applications. In ferromagnetic/heavy metal thin films, however, typical materials used in both layers are electron-carrier dominant, which significantly suppresses the ILG effect due to the short electrostatic screening length in metal. Here, we employ Mn2CoAl, a spin gapless semiconductor with hole carriers, as the ferromagnetic layer and investigate the ILG effect in MgO/Mn2CoAl/Pd ultrathin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Reversible change of the magnetic anisotropy from the out-of-plane to the in-plane direction is achieved, induced by electrostatic charge accumulation. Moreover, ambipolar transport behavior has been observed and explained by a two-carrier model. Finally, we find that skew scattering is the mechanism of the anomalous Hall effect and can be enhanced at a positive gate voltage in our system. Our results strongly demonstrate that a significant ILG effect on magnetism can be easily achieved in two-carrier dominant ultrathin films.