Planar Hall effect in magnetite (100) films

Giant planar Hall effect (GPHE) has been observed in epitaxial magnetite (100) films grown on MgO substrates. The effect is manifested as jumps in the transverse resistivity when the film is subjected to a swept, in-plane magnetic field. The jumps are two orders of magnitude higher than previously observed in metallic ferromagnets. Recently, the same effect has been reported for other materials, but unlike our results, they present GPHE at low temperature only. The magnitude of the GPHE observed at room temperature has potential applications such as magnetic sensors and nonvolatile memory elements. (C) 2006 American Institute of Physics.