skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Anisotropic spin-orbit torque generation in epitaxial SrIrO 3 by symmetry design

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [2]; ORCiD logo [8];  [8];  [7];  [6];  [4];  [9];  [10]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706,
  2. Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853,
  3. Department of Physics and Centre for Quantum Materials, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada,
  4. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706,
  5. Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439,
  6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Korea,
  7. Department of Physics and Astronomy &, Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588,
  8. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115,
  9. Department of Physics and Centre for Quantum Materials, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada,, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research/Quantum Materials Program, Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8, Canada,, School of Physics, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul 130-722, Korea,
  10. Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853,, Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY 14853

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the interaction between the electron spin and the orbital angular momentum, can unlock rich phenomena at interfaces, in particular interconverting spin and charge currents. Conventional heavy metals have been extensively explored due to their strong SOC of conduction electrons. However, spin-orbit effects in classes of materials such as epitaxial 5d-electron transition-metal complex oxides, which also host strong SOC, remain largely unreported. In addition to strong SOC, these complex oxides can also provide the additional tuning knob of epitaxy to control the electronic structure and the engineering of spin-to-charge conversion by crystalline symmetry. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature generation of spin-orbit torque on a ferromagnet with extremely high efficiency via the spin-Hall effect in epitaxial metastable perovskite SrIrO3. We first predict a large intrinsic spin-Hall conductivity in orthorhombic bulk SrIrO3 arising from the Berry curvature in the electronic band structure. By manipulating the intricate interplay between SOC and crystalline symmetry, we control the spin-Hall torque ratio by engineering the tilt of the corner-sharing oxygen octahedra in perovskite SrIrO3 through epitaxial strain. This allows the presence of an anisotropic spin-Hall effect due to a characteristic structural anisotropy in SrIrO3 with orthorhombic symmetry. Our experimental findings demonstrate the heteroepitaxial symmetry design approach to engineer spin-orbit effects. In conclusion, we therefore anticipate that these epitaxial 5d transition-metal oxide thin films can be an ideal building block for low-power spintronics.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-06ER46327; AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1562600
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1574305
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 116 Journal Issue: 33; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 65 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (48)

Spin-Torque Switching with the Giant Spin Hall Effect of Tantalum journal May 2012
Magnetization switching through giant spin–orbit torque in a magnetically doped topological insulator heterostructure journal April 2014
Observation of the nonlocal spin-orbital effective field journal April 2013
Misfit strain accommodation in epitaxial A B O 3 perovskites: Lattice rotations and lattice modulations journal February 2011
Correlated Quantum Phenomena in the Strong Spin-Orbit Regime journal March 2014
Mott physics and band topology in materials with strong spin–orbit interaction journal March 2010
Evidence for the ballistic intrinsic spin Hall effect in HgTe nanostructures journal May 2010
Current-induced spin–orbit torques
  • Gambardella, Pietro; Miron, Ioan Mihai
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 369, Issue 1948 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2010.0336
journal August 2011
Topological crystalline metal in orthorhombic perovskite iridates journal March 2015
Spin conversion on the nanoscale journal July 2017
Spin-Torque Ferromagnetic Resonance Induced by the Spin Hall Effect journal January 2011
Layer thickness dependence of the current-induced effective field vector in Ta|CoFeB|MgO journal December 2012
Quadratic Fermi node in a 3D strongly correlated semimetal journal December 2015
Spin-transfer torque generated by a topological insulator journal July 2014
Enhanced spin–orbit torques by oxygen incorporation in tungsten films journal February 2016
Nonlocal magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic heterostructures journal December 2005
Electrical detection of charge-current-induced spin polarization due to spin-momentum locking in Bi2Se3 journal February 2014
Semimetal and Topological Insulator in Perovskite Iridates journal March 2012
Observation of the Spin Hall Effect in Semiconductors journal December 2004
Role of transparency of platinum–ferromagnet interfaces in determining the intrinsic magnitude of the spin Hall effect journal April 2015
Topological semimetals with helicoid surface states journal June 2016
Spin Hall Effect journal August 1999
Interplay of Spin-Orbit Interactions, Dimensionality, and Octahedral Rotations in Semimetallic SrIrO 3 journal January 2015
Current-induced torques in magnetic materials journal April 2012
Current-driven dynamics of chiral ferromagnetic domain walls journal June 2013
Current induced torques and interfacial spin-orbit coupling: Semiclassical modeling journal May 2013
Spin Hall Effects in Metallic Antiferromagnets journal November 2014
Spin transport parameters in metallic multilayers determined by ferromagnetic resonance measurements of spin-pumping journal April 2013
Highly efficient and tunable spin-to-charge conversion through Rashba coupling at oxide interfaces journal August 2016
Spin to Charge Conversion at Room Temperature by Spin Pumping into a New Type of Topological Insulator: α -Sn Films journal March 2016
Engineering a Spin-Orbital Magnetic Insulator by Tailoring Superlattices journal June 2015
5d iridium oxide as a material for spin-current detection journal December 2013
Dependence of the efficiency of spin Hall torque on the transparency of Pt/ferromagnetic layer interfaces journal August 2015
Spin Hall effects journal October 2015
Current-induced spin orientation of electrons in semiconductors journal July 1971
Theory of Large Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect in Iridate Semimetals journal May 2018
Emergent phenomena at oxide interfaces journal January 2012
Spin polarization of conduction electrons induced by electric current in two-dimensional asymmetric electron systems journal January 1990
Symmetry and magnitude of spin–orbit torques in ferromagnetic heterostructures journal July 2013
Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect in Platinum: First-Principles Calculations journal March 2008
Antiferromagnetic spintronics journal March 2016
Electric Manipulation of Spin Relaxation Using the Spin Hall Effect journal July 2008
Dimensionality-Driven Metal-Insulator Transition in Spin-Orbit-Coupled SrIrO 3 journal December 2017
Quantum Spin Hall Effect in a Transition Metal Oxide Na 2 IrO 3 journal June 2009
Spin-Orbit Semimetal SrIrO 3 in the Two-Dimensional Limit journal December 2017
Berry phase effects on electronic properties journal July 2010
Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridates journal May 2011
All-optical vector measurement of spin-orbit-induced torques using both polar and quadratic magneto-optic Kerr effects journal September 2016

Figures / Tables (4)