Recent studies rediscovered the crucial role of field-like spin orbit torque (SOT) in nanosecond-timescale SOT dynamics. However, there is not yet an effective way to control its relative amplitude. Here, we experimentally modulate the field-like SOT in W/CoFeB/MgO trilayers through tuning the interfacial spin accumulation. By performing spin Hall magnetoresistance measurement, we find that the CoFeB with enhanced spin dephasing, either generated from larger layer thickness or from proper annealing, can distinctly boost the spin absorption and enhance the interfacial spin mixing conductance G_r. While the damping-like torque efficiency increases with G_r, the field-like torque efficiency turns out to decrease with it. The results suggest that the interfacial spin accumulation, which largely contributes to a field-like torque, is reduced by higher interfacial spin transparency. Our work shows a new path to further improve the performance of SOT-based magnetic devices.
We study the behavior of non-equilibrium spin density and spin-orbit torque in a topological insulator - antiferromagnet heterostructure. Unlike ferromagnetic heterostructures where Dirac cone is gapped due to time-reversal symmetry breaking, here the Dirac cone is preserved. We demonstrate the existence of a staggered spin density corresponding to a damping like torque, which is quite robust against the scalar impurity, when the transport energy is in the topological insulator surface energy regime. We show the contribution to the non-equilibrium spin density due to both surface and bulk topo…
Current-driven spin-orbit torques are investigated in a heterostructure composed of a ferromagnet deposited on top of a three dimensional topological insulator using the linear response formalism. We develop a tight-binding model of the heterostructure adopting a minimal interfacial hybridization scheme that promotes induced magnetic exchange on the topological surface states, as well as induced Rashba-like spin-orbit coupling in the ferromagnet. Therefore, our model accounts for spin Hall effect from bulk states together with inverse spin galvanic and magnetoelectric effects at the interface …
In a ferromagnetic heterostructure, the interplay between a Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an exchange field gives rise to a current-driven spin torque. In a realistic device setup, we investigate the Rashba spin torque in the diffusive regime and report two major findings: (i) a nonvanishing torque exists at the edges of the device even when the magnetization and effective Rashba field are aligned; (ii) anisotropic spin relaxation rates driven by the Rashba spin-orbit coupling assign the spin torque a general expression ${\bm T}=T^y_{\para}(θ){\bm m}\times(\hat{\bm y}\times{\bm m})+T^y_{\bot}…
The effect of spin currents on the magnetic order of insulating antiferromagnets (AFMs) is of fundamental interest and can enable new applications. Toward this goal, characterizing the spin-orbit torques (SOT) associated with AFM/heavy metal (HM) interfaces is important. Here we report the full angular dependence of the harmonic Hall voltages in a predominantly easy-plane AFM, epitaxial c-axis oriented $α$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ films, with an interface to Pt. By modeling the harmonic Hall signals together with the $α$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ magnetic parameters, we determine the amplitudes of field-like and damping…
We investigate the injection of quasiparticle spin currents into a superconductor via spin pumping from an adjacent FM layer.$\;$To this end, we use NbN/\ch{Ni80Fe20}(Py)-heterostructures with a Pt spin sink layer and excite ferromagnetic resonance in the Py-layer by placing the samples onto a coplanar waveguide (CPW). A phase sensitive detection of the microwave transmission signal is used to quantitatively extract the inductive coupling strength between sample and CPW, interpreted in terms of inverse current-induced torques, in our heterostructures as a function of temperature. Below the sup…
The motion of magnetic domain walls in ultrathin magnetic heterostructures driven by current via the spin Hall torque is described. We show results from perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB|MgO heterostructures with various heavy metal underlayers. The domain wall moves along or against the current flow depending on the underlayer material. The direction to which the domain wall moves is associated with the chirality of the domain wall spiral formed in these heterostructures. The one-dimensional model is used to describe the experimental results and extract parameters such as the Dzyaloshinskii-Mo…
Heterostructures utilizing topological insulators exhibit a remarkable spin-torque efficiency. However, the exact origin of the strong torque, in particular whether it stems from the spin-momentum locking of the topological surface states or rather from spin-Hall physics of the topological-insulator bulk remains unclear. Here, we explore a mechanism of spin-torque generation purely based on the topological surface states. We consider topological-insulator-based bilayers involving ferromagnetic metal (TI/FM) and magnetically doped topological insulators (TI/mdTI), respectively. By ascribing the…
Ferromagnetic heterostructures provide an ideal platform to explore the nature of spin-orbit torques arising from the interplay mediated by itinerant electrons between a Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling and a ferromagnetic exchange interaction. For such a prototypic system, we develop a set of coupled diffusion equations to describe the diffusive spin dynamics and spin-orbit torques. We characterize the spin torque and its two prominent--out-of-plane and in-plane--components for a wide range of relative strength between the Rashba coupling and ferromagnetic exchange. The symmetry and angular de…
A large unidirectional magnetoresistance (UMR) ratio of UMR/$R_{xx}\sim$ $0.36\%$ is found in W/CoFeB metallic bilayer heterostructures at room temperature. Three different regimes in terms of the current dependence of UMR ratio are identified: A spin-dependent-scattering mechanism regime at small current densities $J \sim$ $10$$^{9}$A/m$^{2}$ (UMR ratio $\propto$ $J$), a spin-magnon-interaction mechanism regime at intermediate $J \sim$ $10$$^{10}$A/m$^{2}$ (UMR ratio $\propto$ $J$$^{3}$), and a spin-transfer torque (STT) regime at $J \sim$ $10$$^{11}$A/m$^{2}$ (UMR ratio independent of $J$). …
We investigate a possible correlation between spin orbit torque (SOT) and exchange-bias (EB) in IrMn-layer/ferromagnetic-ribbon heterostructure by performing magnetoimpedance (MI) measurements. To uncover this correlation, we benefit from EB training effect probed by MI effect at room temperature. A damping-like SOT driven by ac current through the antiferromagnetic IrMn applies to the ferromagnetic ribbon layer, determined by MI magnetic field and frequency sweeps. Importantly, magnitude of the SOT is observed to remain intact against EB training and decrease of EB through alternative magneti…
We predict an unconventional spin-transfer torque (STT) acting on the magnetization of a free ferromagnetic (F) layer within N/TI/F vertical heterostructures which originates from strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator (TI), as well as from charge current becoming spin-polarized in the direction of transport as it flows from the normal metal (N) across the bulk of the TI slab. Unlike conventional STT in symmetric F'/I/F magnetic tunnel junctions, where only the in-plane STT component is non-zero in the linear response, both the in-plane and…
Topological insulators have emerged as an important material class for efficient spin-charge interconversion. Most topological insulators considered to date are binary or ternary compounds, with the exception of $α$-Sn. Here we report a comprehensive characterization of the growth, magnetotransport properties, and current-induced spin-orbit torques of $α$-Sn and $β$-Sn-based ferromagnetic heterostructures. We show that $α$-Sn grown with a Bi surfactant on CdTe(001) promotes large spin-orbit torques in a ferromagnetic FeCo layer at room temperature, comparable to Pt, whereas $α$-Sn grown withou…
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in spin-orbit torques (SOTs) for manipulating the magnetization in nonvolatile magnetic memory devices. SOTs rely on the spin-orbit coupling of a nonmagnetic material coupled to a ferromagnetic layer to convert an applied charge current into a torque on the magnetization of the ferromagnet (FM). Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising candidates for generating these torques with both high charge-to-spin conversion ratios, and symmetries and directions which are efficient for magnetization manipulation. Moreover, TMDs offer a wide…
Harmonic measurements of the longitudinal and transverse voltages in Bi-Sb/Co bilayers are presented. A large second harmonic voltage signal due to the ordinary Nernst effect is observed. In experiments where a magnetic field is rotated in the film plane, the ordinary Nernst effect shows the same angular dependence in the transverse voltage as the damping-like spin-orbit torque and in the longitudinal voltage as the unidirectional spin-Hall magneto-resistance respectively. Therefore, the ordinary Nernst effect can be a spurious signal in spin-orbit torque measurements, leading to an overestima…
Magnetic heterostructure Mo/CoFeB/MgO has strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and thermal stability. Through current-induced hysteresis loop shift measurements, we show that the dampinglike spin-orbit torque (SOT) efficiency of Mo/CoFeB/MgO heterostructure is $ξ_{DL}\approx -0.003\pm 0.001$ and fairly independent of the annealing temperature from 300$^\circ$C to 400$^\circ$C. Though $|ξ_{DL}|$ is small while compare to those from Ta or W-based heterostructures, reversible current-induced SOT switching of a thermally-stable Mo/CoFeB/MgO heterostruture can still be achieved. Furthermore, we…
It is shown that the current-induced torques between a ferromagnetic layer and an antiferromagnetic layer with a compensated interface vanish when the ferromagnet is aligned with an axis of spin-rotation symmetry of the antiferromagnet. For properly chosen geometries this implies that the current induced torque can stabilize the out-of-plane (or hard axis) orientation of the ferromagnetic layer. This current-induced torque relies on phase coherent transport, and we calculate the robustness of this torque to phase breaking scattering. From this it is shown that the torque is not linearly depend…
We have investigated the current-induced spin transfer torque of a ferromagnet-insulator-ferromagnet tunnel junction by taking the spin-flip scatterings into account. It is found that the spin-flip scattering can induce an additional spin torque, enhancing the maximum of the spin torque and giving rise to an angular shift compared to the case when the spin-flip scatterings are neglected. The effects of the molecular fields of the left and right ferromagnets on the spin torque are also studied. It is found that $τ^{Rx}/I_{e}$ ($τ^{Rx}$ is the spin-transfer torque acting on the right ferromagnet…
When a flow of electron passes through a paramagnetic layer with strong spin-orbit-coupling such as platinum (Pt), a net spin current is produced via spin Hall effect (SHE). This spin current can exert a torque on the magnetization of an adjacent ferromagnetic layer which can be probed via magnetization dynamic response, e.g. spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR). Nevertheless, that effect in lower frequency magnetization dynamic regime (MHz) where skin effect occurs in high permeability ferromagnetic conductors namely the magneto-impedance (MI) effect can be fundamentally important whi…
It has been shown that the spin Hall effect from heavy transition metals can generate sufficient spin-orbit torque and further produce current-induced magnetization switching in the adjacent ferromagnetic layer. However, if the ferromagnetic layer has in-plane magnetic anisotropy, probing such switching phenomenon typically relies on tunneling magnetoresistance measurement of nano-sized magnetic tunnel junctions, differential planar Hall voltage measurement, or Kerr imaging approaches. We show that in magnetic heterostructures with spin Hall metals, there exist current-induced in-plane spin Ha…
Spin-orbit torques in ferromagnetic (FM)/non-magnetic (NM) heterostructures offer more energy-efficient means to realize spin-logic devices; however, their strengths are determined by the heterostructure interface. This work examines crystal orientation impact on the spin-orbit torque efficiency in different Fe/Pd bilayer systems. Spin torque ferromagnetic measurements evidence that the damping-like torque efficiency is higher in epitaxial than in polycrystalline bilayer structures while the field-like torque is negligible in all bilayer structures. The strength of the damping-like torque decr…
Measurements of spin-orbit torques in a ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic multilayer are typically based on an assumption that the entire ferromagnetic layer uniformly responds to the spin-orbit torque. This assumption breaks down when the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer is comparable to the dynamic exchange coupling length, which can be as short as a few nanometers in certain measurement geometries. The nonuniform magnetization reorientation coupled with nonuniform contribution of each magnetic sublayer to the magnetoresistance or the Kerr effect may impact the accuracy in the extrapolation of s…
We theoretically study the spin current and spin-transfer torque generation in a conventional spin- valve hybrid structure of type ferromagnetic/normal metal/ferromagnetic (FM/NM/FM) made of the topological insulator (TI), in which a gate voltage is attached to the normal layer. We demonstrate the penetration of the spin-transfer torque into the right ferromagnetic layer and show that, unlike graphene spin-valve junction, the spin-transfer torque in TI is very sensitive to the chemical potential of the NM region. As an important result, by changing the chemical potential of the NM spacer and m…
In a study of the ferromagnetic phase of a multilayer digital ferromagnetic semiconductor in the mean-field and effective-mass approximations, we find the exchange interaction to have the dominant energy scale of the problem, effectively controlling the spatial distribution of the carrier spins in the digital ferromagnetic heterostructures. In the ferromagnetic phase, the majority and minority carriers tend to be in different regions of the space (spin separation). Hence, the charge distribution of carriers also changes noticeably from the ferromagnetic to the paramagnetic phase. An example of…
We predict that a temperature gradient can induce a magnon-mediated intrinsic torque and a transverse spin current in systems with non-trivial magnon Berry curvature. With the help of a microscopic linear response theory of nonequilibrium magnon-mediated torques and spin currents we identify the interband and intraband components that manifest in ferromagnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and magnetic textures. To illustrate and assess the importance of such effects, we apply our theory to the magnon-mediated spin Nernst and torque responses in a kagome lattice ferromagnet.
We report that by measuring current-induced hysteresis loop shift versus in-plane bias magnetic field, the spin Hall effect (SHE) contribution of the current-induced effective field per current density, $χ_{SHE}$, can be estimated for Pt and Ta-based magnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). We apply this technique to a Pt-based sample with its ferromagnetic (FM) layer being wedged-deposited and discover an extra effective field contribution, $χ_{Wedged}$, due to the asymmetric nature of the deposited FM layer. We confirm the correlation between $χ_{Wedged}$ and t…
We present a phenomenological theory of spin-orbit torques in a metallic ferromagnet with spin-relaxing boundaries. The model is rooted in the coupled diffusion of charge and spin in the bulk of the ferromagnet, where we account for the anomalous Hall effects as well as the anisotropic magnetoresistance in the corresponding constitutive relations for both charge and spin sectors. The diffusion equations are supplemented with suitable boundary conditions reflecting the spin-sink capacity of the environment. In inversion-asymmetric heterostructures, the uncompensated spin accumulation exerts a d…
(Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$)$_2$Te$_3$ topological insulators (TIs) are gathering increasing attention owing to their large charge-to-spin conversion efficiency and the ensuing spin-orbit torques (SOTs) that can be used to manipulate the magnetization of a ferromagnet (FM). The origin of the torques, however, remains elusive, while the implications of hybridized states and the strong material intermixing at the TI/FM interface are essentially unexplored. By combining interface chemical analysis and spin-transfer ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) measurements, we demonstrate that intermixing plays a criti…
We calculate the current and the spin-torque in small symmetric double tunnel barrier ferromagnet - superconductor - ferromagnet (F-S-F) systems. Spin-accumulation on the superconductor governs the transport properties when the spin-flip relaxation time is longer than the transport dwell time. In the elastic transport regime, it is demonstrated that the relative change in the current (spin-torque) for F-S-F systems equals the relative change in the current (spin-torque) for F-N-F systems upon changing the relative magnetization direction of the two ferromagnets. This differs from the results i…
The spin-orbit torques (SOTs) generated from topological insulators (TIs) have gained increasing attention in recent years. These TIs, which are typically formed by epitaxially grown chalcogenides, possess extremely high SOT efficiencies and have great potential to be employed in the next-generation spintronics devices. However, epitaxy of these chalcogenides is required to ensure the existence of topologically-protected surface state (TSS), which limits the feasibility of using these materials in industry. In this work, we show that non-epitaxial Bi$_{x}$Te$_{1-x}$/ferromagnet heterostructure…
We investigate phonon spin transport in an insulating ferromagnet-nonmagnet-ferromagnet heterostructure. We show that the magnetoelastic interaction between the spins and the phonons leads to nonlocal spin transfer between the magnets. This transfer is mediated by a local phonon spin current and accompanied by a phonon spin accumulation. The spin conductance depends nontrivially on the system size, and decays over millimeter length scales for realistic material parameters, far exceeding the decay lengths of magnonic spin currents.
Dominant spin Hall torque and negligible orbital Hall torque in α-W/ferromagnet heterostructures with artifacts-free angular momentum detectors
State Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Physics and Chip Technologies, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院半导体研究所半导体物理与芯片技术国家重点实验室);Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院大学材料科学与光电工程技术研究中心);College of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University(陕西师范大学物理学与信息技术学院)
Spin relaxation torque ${\cal T}$ in uniform metallic ferromagnets with the spin-orbit interaction arising from random impurities is calculated microscopically. ${\cal T}$ is shown to be written by spatial derivatives of the electric field, but is not always given as a divergence of a torque dipole density. The result is due to the fast dissipation of the orbital angular momentum, and thus a conserving spin current cannot be defined. It is discussed that the $β$ term in the spin transfer torque can also be asymmetric.
Electric-field control of magnetization dynamics is fundamentally and technologically important for future spintronic devices. Here, based on electric-field control of both magnetic anisotropy and spin--orbit torque, two distinct methods are presented for switching the magnetization in topological insulator (TI)/magnetic-TI hybrid systems. The magnetic anisotropy energy in magnetic TIs is formulated analytically as a function of the Fermi energy, and it is confirmed that the out-of-plane magnetization is always favored for the partially occupied surface band. Also proposed is a transistor-like…
We investigate spin transport through ferromagnetic graphene vertical heterostructures where a sandwiched tunneling layer is either a normal or ferroelectric insulator. We show that the spin-polarization of the tunneling current is electronically controlled via gate voltages. We also demonstrate that the tunneling current of Dirac fermions can be prohibited when the spin configuration of ferromagnetic graphene sheets is opposite. The giant electroresistance can thus be developed by using the proposed heterostructure in this study. The effects of temperature on the spin transport and the giant …
We demonstrate efficient current induced spin orbit torque switching in perpendicularly magnetized epitaxial MgO(001)//Pd/Co2FeAl/MgO heterostructures grown by magnetron sputtering. The advantage of such heterostructures for spin orbit torque MRAM devices is that they allow a unique combination of critical ingredients: i) low resistivity required for reduced electric energy consumption during writing, ii) high TMR ratio required for efficient reading and iii) strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for increased thermal stability.
Current-induced spin torques are of great interest to manipulate the orientation of nanomagnets without applying external magnetic fields. They find direct application in non-volatile data storage and logic devices, and provide insight into fundamental processes related to the interdependence between charge and spin transport. Recent demonstrations of magnetization switching induced by in-plane current injection in ferromagnetic heterostructures have drawn attention to a class of spin torques based on orbital-to-spin momentum transfer, which is alternative to pure spin transfer torque (STT) be…
Based on Keldysh's nonequilibrium Green function method, the spin-dependent transport properties in a ferromagnet-quantum dot (QD)-ferromagnet coupled system are investigated. It is shown the spin current shows quite different characteristics from its electrical counterpart, and by changing the relative orientation of both magnetizations, it can change its magnitude even sign. The current-induced spin transfer torque (CISTT) is uncovered to be greatly enhanced when the bias voltage meets with the discrete levels of the QD at resonant positions. The relationship between the CISTT, the electrica…
We develop a microscopic formulation of dynamical spin injection in heterostructure comprising nonmagnetic metals in contact with ferromagnets. The spin pumping current is expressed in terms of Green's function of the nonmagnetic metal attached to the ferromagnet where a precessing magnetization is induced. The formulation allows for the inclusion of spin-orbit coupling and disorder. The Green's functions involved in the expression for the current are expressed in real-space lattice coordinates and can thus be efficiently computed using recursive methods.
We present an {\it ab initio}-based theoretical framework which elucidates the origin of the spin-orbit torque (SOT) in Normal-Metal(NM)/Ferromagnet(FM) heterostructures. The SOT is decomposed into two contributions, namely, {\it spin-Hall} and the {\it spin-orbital} components. We find that {\it (i)} the Field-Like (FL) SOT is dominated by the spin-orbital component and {\it (ii)} both components contribute to the damping-like torque with comparable magnitude in the limit of thick Pt film. The contribution of the spin-orbital component to the DL-SOT is present only for NMs with strong SOC cou…
The ability of spin-orbit interactions to convert charge current into spin current, most often in the bulk of heavy metal thin films, has been the hallmark of spintronics in the last decade. In this study, we demonstrate how the insertion of light metal element interface profoundly affects both the nature of spin-orbit torque and its efficiency in terms of damping-like ($H_{\text{DL}}$) and field-like ($H_{\text{FL}}$) effective fields in ultrathin Co ferromagnet. Indeed, we measure unexpectedly large $H_{\text{FL}}$/$H_{\text{DL}}$ ratio ($\sim$2.5) upon inserting a 1.4 nm thin Al layer in Pt…
In systems with small spin-orbit coupling, current-induced torques on the magnetization require inhomogeneous magnetization textures. For large spin-orbit coupling, such torques exist even without gradients in the magnetization direction. Here, we consider current-induced torques in ferromagnetic metals with both Rashba spin-orbit coupling and inhomogeneous magnetization. We first phenomenologically construct all torques that are allowed by the symmetries of the system, to first order in magnetization-direction gradients and electric field. Second, we use a Boltzmann approach to calculate the …
We study the electronic properties of a planar semiconductor-superconductor heterostructure, in which a thin ferromagnetic insulator layer lies in between and acts as a spin filtering barrier. We find that in such a system one can simultaneously enhance the strengths of all the three important induced physical quantities, i.e., Rashba spin-orbit coupling, exchange coupling, and superconducting pairing potential, for the hybrid mode by external gating. Our results show specific advantage of this stacked device geometry compared to conventional devices. We further discuss how to optimize geometr…
We theoretically examine the spin-transfer torque in the presence of spin-orbit interaction (SOI) at impurities in a ferromagnetic metal on the basis of linear response theory. We obtained, in addition to the usual spin-transfer torque, a new contributioin $\sim {\bm j}_{\rm SH}^{\phantom{\dagger}} \cdot \nabla {\bm n}$ in the first order in SOI, where ${\bm j}_{\rm SH}^{\phantom{\dagger}}$ is the spin Hall current driven by an external electric field. This is a reaction to inverse spin Hall effect driven by spin motive force in a ferromagnet.
Single-crystal materials with sufficiently low crystal symmetry and strong spin-orbit interactions can be used to generate novel forms of spin-orbit torques on adjacent ferromagnets, such as the out-of-plane antidamping torque previously observed in WTe$_2$/ferromagnet heterostructures. Here, we present measurements of spin-orbit torques produced by the low-symmetry material $β$-MoTe$_2$, which unlike WTe$_2$ retains bulk inversion symmetry. We measure spin-orbit torques on $β$-MoTe$_2$/Permalloy heterostructures using spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance as a function of crystallographic align…
Commensuration torques in double-moiré twisted trilayer hexagonal boron nitride and graphene heterostructures
University of Seoul(首尔大学);Sungkyunkwan University(成均馆大学);Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST(加泰罗尼亚纳米科学与技术研究所(ICN2,西班牙高等科学研究委员会和巴塞罗那独立科学研究所))
We analyse the influence of current induced torques on the magnetization configuration of a ferromagnet in a circuit containing a compensated antiferromagnet. We argue that these torques are generically non-zero and support this conclusion with a microscopic NEGF calculation for a circuit containing antiferromagnetic NiMn and ferromagnetic Co layers. Because of symmetry dictated differences in the form of the current-induced torque, the phase diagram which expresses the dependence of ferromagnet configuration on current and external magnetic field differs qualitatively from its ferromagnet-onl…
We investigate a spin-electricity conversion effect in a topological insulator/ferromagnet heterostructure. In the spin-momentum-locked surface state, an electric current generates nonequilibrium spin accumulation, which causes a spin-orbit torque that acts on the ferromagnet. When spins in the ferromagnet are completely parallel to the accumulated spin, this spin-orbit torque is zero. In the presence of spin excitations, however, a coupling between magnons and electrons enables us to obtain a nonvanishing torque. In this paper, we consider a model of the heterostructure in which a three-dimen…
Topological insulators (TIs) with spin momentum locked topological surface states (TSS) are expected to exhibit a giant spin-orbit torque (SOT) in the TI/ferromagnet systems. To date, the TI SOT driven magnetization switching is solely reported in a Cr doped TI at 1.9 K. Here, we directly show giant SOT driven magnetization switching in a Bi2Se3/NiFe heterostructure at room temperature captured using a magneto-optic Kerr effect microscope. We identify a large charge to spin conversion efficiency of ~1-1.75 in the thin TI films, where the TSS is dominant. In addition, we find the current densit…
We report measurements of current-induced torques in heterostructures of Permalloy (Py) with TaTe$_2$, a transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) material possessing low crystal symmetry, and observe a torque component with Dresselhaus symmetry. We suggest that the dominant mechanism for this Dresselhaus component is not a spin-orbit torque, but rather the Oersted field arising from a component of current that flows perpendicular to the applied voltage due to resistance anisotropy within the TaTe$_2$. This type of transverse current is not present in wires made from a single uniform layer of a ma…
Generally the adiabatic quantum pumping phenomenon can be interpreted by the surface integral of the Berry curvature inside the cyclic loop. Spin angular momentum flow without charge current can be pumped out by magnetization precession in ferromagnet-based structures. When an electron is scattered by a helimagnet, spin-dependent diffraction occurs due to the spatial modulation of the spiral. In this work, we consider the charge and spin flow driven by magnetization precession in normal-metal/multiferroic-helimagnet/ferromagnet heterostructures. The pumping behavior is governed by the diffract…
Using a multilayer structure containing (cobalt detector layer)/(copper spacer)/(Permalloy source layer), we show experimentally how the non-reorientable spin-orbit torque generated by the Permalloy source layer (the component of spin-orbit torque that does not change when the Permalloy magnetization is rotated) can be measured using spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) with lineshape analysis. We find that dynamic spin pumping between the magnetic layers exerts torques on the magnetic layers as large or larger than the spin-orbit torques, so that if dynamic spin pumping is neglected t…