Strain-controlled sign reversal of the anomalous Hall effect in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mrow><mi>Ru</mi><mo>/</mo><msub><mrow><mo>[</mo><mrow><mi>Co</mi><mo>/</mo><mi>Ni</mi></mrow><mo>]</mo></mrow><mi>N</mi></msub></mrow></math> multilayers

Jingying Zhang; Sigang Wang; Yue Xiang; Wenhui Xie; Zhe Yuan; Yi Liu; Zongzhi Zhang

doi:10.1103/gmtm-c9yx

Strain-controlled sign reversal of the anomalous Hall effect in $Ru / {[Co / Ni]}_{N}$ multilayers

Jingying Zhang^1,2,*, Sigang Wang ^1,*, Yue Xiang³, Wenhui Xie ³, Zhe Yuan ^4,†, Yi Liu ^5,6,‡, and Zongzhi Zhang ^2,§

¹The School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
²Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (MOE), School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
³Engineering Research Center for Nanophotonics and Advanced Instrument, School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
⁴State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Interdisciplinary Center for Theoretical Physics and Information Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
⁵Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
⁶Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

^*These authors contributed equally to this work.
^†Contact author: yuanz@fudan.edu.cn
^‡Contact author: yiliu42@shu.edu.cn
^§Contact author: zzzhang@fudan.edu.cn

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 084431 – Published 28 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gmtm-c9yx

Abstract

The anomalous Hall effect (AHE) is a hallmark transport phenomenon in ferromagnets arising from relativistic spin-orbit interaction. Here, we report an unexpected sign reversal of the AHE in $Ru / {[Co / Ni]}_{N}$ multilayers controlled by the stacking sequence of the Ru layer. When Ru is placed beneath, rather than atop, the Co/Ni multilayers, the anomalous Hall signal switches from positive to negative. By systematically varying the multilayer repeat number $N$ and combining transport measurements with first-principles calculations, we show that this reversal originates from in-plane tensile strain imposed by the Ru underlayer, which reshapes the electronic structure and redistributes Berry curvature near the Fermi level. Our findings establish interfacial strain as an effective knob for tuning Berry-curvature-driven transport and suggest a pathway toward strain-controlled topological transport phenomena in magnetic multilayers.

Physical Review B

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Strain-controlled sign reversal of the anomalous Hall effect in $Ru / {[Co / Ni]}_{N}$ multilayers

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Strain-controlled sign reversal of the anomalous Hall effect in Ru/[Co/Ni]N multilayers

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Strain-controlled sign reversal of the anomalous Hall effect in $Ru / {[Co / Ni]}_{N}$ multilayers