The electrical manipulation of magnetization by current-induced spin torques has given access to realize a plethora of ultralow power and fast spintronic devices such as non-volatile magnetic memories, spin-torque nano-oscillators, and neuromorphic computing devices. Recent advances have led to the notion that relativistic spin-orbit coupling is an efficient source for current-induced torques, opening the field of spin-orbitronics. Despite the significant progress, however, the fundamental mechanism of magnetization manipulation, the requirement of spin currents in generating current-induced torques, has remained unchanged. Here, we demonstrate the generation of current-induced torques without the use of spin currents. By measuring the current-induced torque for naturally-oxidized-Cu/ferromagnetic-metal bilayers, we observed an exceptionally high effective spin Hall conductivity at low temperatures despite the absence of strong spin-orbit coupling. Furthermore, we found that the direction of the torque depends on the choice of the ferromagnetic layer, which counters the conventional understanding of the current-induced torque. These unconventional features are best interpreted in terms of an orbital counterpart of the spin torque, an orbital torque, which arises from the orbital Rashba effect and orbital current. These findings will shed light on the underlying physics of current-induced magnetization manipulation, potentially altering the landscape of spin-orbitronics.
Low crystal symmetry of magnetic van der Waals materials naturally promotes spin-orbital complexity unachievable in common magnetic materials used for spin-orbit torque switching. Here, using first-principles methods, we demonstrate that an interplay of spin and orbital degrees of freedom has a profound impact on spin-orbit torques in a prototype van der Waals ferromagnet: Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$ (FGT). While we show that bulk FGT hosts strong "hidden" current-induced torques harvested by each of its layers, we uncover that their origin alternates between the conventional spin flux torque and the so-ca…
We investigated spin-orbit torques in prototypical Pt-based spintronic devices. We found that, in Pt/Ni and Pt/Fe bilayers, the damping-like torque efficiency depends on the thickness of the Pt layer. We also found that the damping-like torque efficiency is almost identical in the Pt/Ni and Pt/Fe bilayers despite the stronger spin memory loss at the Pt/Fe interface. These results suggest that although the dominant source of the damping-like torque is the bulk spin Hall effect in the Pt layer, a sizable damping-like torque is generated by the interface in the Pt/Fe bilayer due to the stronger i…
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 Hall effect, an electric generation of spin current, allows for efficient control of magnetization. Recent theory revealed that orbital Hall effect creates orbital current, which can be much larger than spin Hall-induced spin current. However, orbital current cannot directly exert a torque on a ferromagnet, requiring a conversion process from orbital current to spin current. Here, we report two effective methods of the conversion through spin-orbit coupling engineering, which allows us to unambiguously demonstrate orbital-current-induced spin torque, or orbital Hall torque. We find that o…
Modern spintronics relies on the generation of spin currents through spin-orbit coupling. The spin-current generation has been believed to be triggered by current-induced orbital dynamics, which governs the angular momentum transfer from the lattice to the electrons in solids. The fundamental role of the orbital response in the angular momentum dynamics suggests the importance of the orbital counterpart of spin currents: orbital currents. However, evidence for its existence has been elusive. Here, we demonstrate the generation of giant orbital currents and uncover fundamental features of the o…
Motivated by the importance of understanding competing mechanisms to current-induced spin-orbit torque in complex magnets, we develop a unified theory of current-induced spin-orbital coupled dynamics. The theory describes angular momentum transfer between different degrees of freedom in solids, e.g., the electron orbital and spin, the crystal lattice, and the magnetic order parameter. Based on the continuity equations for the spin and orbital angular momenta, we derive equations of motion that relate spin and orbital current fluxes and torques describing the transfer of angular momentum betwee…
Harnessing Native Chromium Oxidation for Giant Orbital Torque and Field-Free Magnetization Switching in NiFe/Cr Bilayers
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar（印度理工学院罗帕尔分校）；Indian Institute of Technology Mandi（印度理工学院曼迪分校）；Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar（印度理工学院布巴内斯瓦尔分校）；Virginia Commonwealth University（弗吉尼亚联邦大学）；Jaypee Institute of Information Technology（贾伊皮信息技术学院）
Spin torque oscillators placed onto a nonmagnetic heavy metal show synchronized auto-oscillations due to the coupling originating from spin Hall magnetoresistance effect. Here, we study a system having two spin torque oscillators under the effect of the spin Hall torque, and show that switching the external current direction enables us to control the phase difference of the synchronization between in-phase and antiphase.
Spin-Orbital Hall Nano-Oscillators using PtCr/NiFe
University of Gothenburg（哥德堡大学）；Tohoku University（东北大学）；Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学）；Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology（越南科学技术院）；Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）
An important goal of spintronics is to covert a charge current into a spin current with a controlled spin polarization that can exert torques on an adjacent magnetic layer. Here we demonstrate such torques in a two ferromagnet system. A CoNi multilayer is used as a spin current source in a sample with structure CoNi/Au/CoFeB. Spin torque ferromagnetic resonance is used to measure the torque on the CoFeB layer. The response as a function of the applied field angle and current is consistent with the symmetry expected for a torques produced by the planar Hall effect originating in CoNi. We find t…
Absence of orbital current torque in a magnetic metal/Pt/CuOx trilayer
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）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；College of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University（陕西师范大学物理与信息工程学院）
We report the observation of a spin-orbit torque (SOT) originating from the surface Rashba-Edelstein effect. We found that the SOT in a prototypical spin-orbitronic system, a Pt/Co bilayer, can be manipulated by molecular self-assembly on the Pt surface. This evidences that the Rashba spin-orbit coupling at the Pt surface generates a sizable SOT, which has been hidden by the strong bulk and interface spin-orbit coupling. We show that the molecular tuning of the surface Rashba-Edelstein SOT is consistent with density functional theory calculations. These results illustrate the crucial role of t…
Spin-orbit torques due to interfacial Rashba and spin Hall effects have been widely considered as a potentially more efficient approach than the conventional spin-transfer torque to control the magnetization of ferromagnets. We report a comprehensive study of spin-orbit torque efficiency in Ta(O)/Ni81Fe19 bilayers by tuning low-oxidation of \b{eta}-phase tantalum, and find that the spin Hall angle θDL increases from ~ -0.18 of the pure Ta/Py to the maximum value ~ -0.30 of Ta(O)/Py with 7.8% oxidation. Furthermore, we distinguish the efficiency of the spin-orbit torque generated by the bulk sp…
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…
We study the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of the CoFeB/MgO bilayers in contact with W, Ta, IrMn and Ti which has been suggested as the spin-orbit-torque-related underlayers. The saturation magnetization of the CoFeB depends on the underlayer materials due to formation of a dead-layer, affecting PMA strength of each film. The x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurement reveals that the interfacial intermixing suppresses only the perpendicular orbital moment of Fe, while the intermixing simultaneously suppresses both the perpendicular and in-plane orbital moments of Co.
The orbital Hall effect provides an alternative means to the spin Hall effect to convert a charge current into a flow of angular momentum. Recently, compelling signatures of orbital Hall effects have been identified in 3d transition metals. Here, we report a systematic study of the generation, transmission, and conversion of orbital currents in heterostructures comprising 3d, 5d, and 4f metals. We show that the orbital Hall conductivity of Cr reaches giant values of the order of 5*10^5 Ohm^{-1} m^{-1} and that Pt presents a strong orbital Hall effect in addition to the spin Hall effect. Measur…
Giant Orbital Torque-driven Picosecond Switching in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学集成电路科学与工程学院飞艇北京研究所）；National Key Lab of Spintronics, Institute of International Innovation, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学国际创新研究院自旋电子学全国重点实验室）；Truth Memory Corporation（真忆科技有限公司）；CINaM, Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心艾克斯马赛大学自然与材料研究中心）；Laboratoire Albert Fert, CNRS, Thales, Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学CNRS泰雷兹阿尔贝特·费朗实验室）
The reversal of perpendicular magnetization (PM) by electric control is crucial for high-density integration of low-power magnetic random-access memory (MRAM). Although the spin-transfer torque (STT) and spin-orbit torque (SOT) technologies have been used to switch the magnetization of a free layer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, the former has limited endurance because of the high current density directly through the junction, while the latter requires an external magnetic field or unconventional configuration to break the symmetry. Here we propose and realize the orbit-transfer torqu…
In our numerical study, we identify the best conditions for efficient domain wall motion by spin-orbit torques originating from the Spin Hall effect or Rashba effect. We demonstrate that the effect depends critically on the domain wall configuration, the current injection scheme and the symmetry of the spin-orbit torque. The best identified configuration corresponds to a Néel wall driven by spin Hall Effect in a narrow strip with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. In this case, the domain wall velocity can be a factor of 10 larger than that for the conventional current-in-plane spin-transfer t…
