Antiferromagnetic insulators have recently been proved to support spin current efficiently. Here, we report the dampinglike spin-orbit torque (SOT) in Pt/NiO/CoFeB has a strong temperature dependence and reverses the sign below certain temperatures, which is different from the slight variation with temperature in the Pt/CoFeB bilayer. The negative dampinglike SOT at low temperatures is proposed to be mediated by the magnetic interactions that tie with the "exchange bias" in Pt/NiO/CoFeB, in contrast to the thermal-magnon-mediated scenario at high temperatures. Our results highlight the promise to control the SOT through tuning the magnetic structure in multilayers.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.217702 | DOI Listing |
Adv Mater
January 2025
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
In the burgeoning field of spintronics, antiferromagnetic materials (AFMs) are attracting significant attention for their potential to enable ultra-fast, energy-efficient devices. Thin films of AFMs are particularly promising for practical applications due to their compatibility with spin-orbit torque (SOT) mechanisms. However, studying these thin films presents challenges, primarily due to the weak signals they produce and the rapid dynamics driven by SOT, that are too fast for conventional electric transport or microwave techniques to capture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials (Basel)
January 2025
Department Physics and Astronomy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
In this paper, we review our work on the manipulation of magnetization in ferromagnetic semiconductors (FMSs) using electric-current-induced spin-orbit torque (SOT). Our review focuses on FMS layers from the (Ga,Mn)As zinc-blende family grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We describe the processes used to obtain spin polarization of the current that is required to achieve SOT, and we briefly discuss methods of specimen preparation and of measuring the state of magnetization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Mater
January 2025
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA.
Unconventional spin-orbit torques arising from electric-field-generated spin currents in anisotropic materials have promising potential for spintronic applications, including for perpendicular magnetic switching in high-density memory applications. Here, all the independent elements of the spin torque conductivity tensor allowed by bulk crystal symmetries for the tetragonal conductor IrO are determined via measurements of conventional (in-plane) anti-damping torques for IrO thin films in the high-symmetry (001) and (100) orientations. It is then tested whether rotational transformations of this same tensor can predict both the conventional and unconventional anti-damping torques for IrO thin films in the lower-symmetry (101), (110), and (111) orientations, finding good agreement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNano Lett
January 2025
School of Microelectronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.
Spin-orbit torque (SOT) is widely considered to be a fast and robust writing scheme for magnetic random-access memories (MRAMs). However, the requirements of field-free switching and high switching efficiency are often incompatible in SOT devices, placing a critical challenge on its improvement. Here we propose that by utilizing biaxial systems the dilemma between high-efficiency and external-field-free SOT switching can be solved intrinsically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMater Horiz
January 2025
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Devices for Post-Moore Chips, Ministry of Education, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
Realizing spin-orbit torque (SOT)-driven magnetization switching offers promising opportunities for the advancement of next-generation spintronics. However, the relatively low charge-spin conversion efficiency accompanied by an ultrahigh critical switching current density () remains a significant obstacle to the further development of SOT-based storage elements. Herein, spin absorption engineering at the ferromagnet/nonmagnet interface is firstly proposed to achieve high SOT efficiency in Pt/Co/Ir trilayers.
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