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Title: Spin–orbit torque-assisted switching in magnetic insulator thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Abstract

As an in-plane charge current flows in a heavy metal film with spin-orbit coupling, it produces a torque on and thereby switches the magnetization in a neighbouring ferromagnetic metal film. Such spin-orbit torque (SOT)-induced switching has been studied extensively in recent years and has shown higher efficiency than switching using conventional spin-transfer torque. Here we report the SOT-assisted switching in heavy metal/magnetic insulator systems. The experiments used a Pt/BaFe12O19 bilayer where the BaFe12O19 layer exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. As a charge current is passed through the Pt film, it produces a SOT that can control the up and down states of the remnant magnetization in the BaFe12O19 film when the film is magnetized by an in-plane magnetic field. Furthermore, it can reduce or increase the switching field of the BaFe12O19 film by as much as about 500 Oe when the film is switched with an out-of-plane field.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [4];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [3];  [2];  [1]
  1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
  2. Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
  4. Univ. of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  5. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems (SHINES); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Emergent Superconductivity (CES)
Sponsoring Org.:
Materials Sciences and Engineering Division; Center for Spintronic Materials Interfaces and Novel Architectures (C-SPIN); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1337163
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

Li, Peng, Liu, Tao, Chang, Houchen, Kalitsov, Alan, Zhang, Wei, Csaba, Gyorgy, Li, Wei, Richardson, Daniel, DeMann, August, Rimal, Gaurab, Dey, Himadri, Jiang, J. S., Porod, Wolfgang, Field, Stuart B., Tang, Jinke, Marconi, Mario C., Hoffmann, Axel, Mryasov, Oleg, and Wu, Mingzhong. Spin–orbit torque-assisted switching in magnetic insulator thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms12688.
Li, Peng, Liu, Tao, Chang, Houchen, Kalitsov, Alan, Zhang, Wei, Csaba, Gyorgy, Li, Wei, Richardson, Daniel, DeMann, August, Rimal, Gaurab, Dey, Himadri, Jiang, J. S., Porod, Wolfgang, Field, Stuart B., Tang, Jinke, Marconi, Mario C., Hoffmann, Axel, Mryasov, Oleg, & Wu, Mingzhong. Spin–orbit torque-assisted switching in magnetic insulator thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12688
Li, Peng, Liu, Tao, Chang, Houchen, Kalitsov, Alan, Zhang, Wei, Csaba, Gyorgy, Li, Wei, Richardson, Daniel, DeMann, August, Rimal, Gaurab, Dey, Himadri, Jiang, J. S., Porod, Wolfgang, Field, Stuart B., Tang, Jinke, Marconi, Mario C., Hoffmann, Axel, Mryasov, Oleg, and Wu, Mingzhong. Thu . "Spin–orbit torque-assisted switching in magnetic insulator thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12688. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1337163.
@article{osti_1337163,
title = {Spin–orbit torque-assisted switching in magnetic insulator thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy},
author = {Li, Peng and Liu, Tao and Chang, Houchen and Kalitsov, Alan and Zhang, Wei and Csaba, Gyorgy and Li, Wei and Richardson, Daniel and DeMann, August and Rimal, Gaurab and Dey, Himadri and Jiang, J. S. and Porod, Wolfgang and Field, Stuart B. and Tang, Jinke and Marconi, Mario C. and Hoffmann, Axel and Mryasov, Oleg and Wu, Mingzhong},
abstractNote = {As an in-plane charge current flows in a heavy metal film with spin-orbit coupling, it produces a torque on and thereby switches the magnetization in a neighbouring ferromagnetic metal film. Such spin-orbit torque (SOT)-induced switching has been studied extensively in recent years and has shown higher efficiency than switching using conventional spin-transfer torque. Here we report the SOT-assisted switching in heavy metal/magnetic insulator systems. The experiments used a Pt/BaFe12O19 bilayer where the BaFe12O19 layer exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. As a charge current is passed through the Pt film, it produces a SOT that can control the up and down states of the remnant magnetization in the BaFe12O19 film when the film is magnetized by an in-plane magnetic field. Furthermore, it can reduce or increase the switching field of the BaFe12O19 film by as much as about 500 Oe when the film is switched with an out-of-plane field.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms12688},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = ,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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