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Title: Role of dimensional crossover on spin-orbit torque efficiency in magnetic insulator thin films

Abstract

Magnetic insulators (MIs) attract tremendous interest for spintronic applications due to low Gilbert damping and the absence of Ohmic loss. Spin-orbit torques (SOTs) on MIs are more intriguing than magnetic metals since SOTs cannot be transferred to MIs through direct injection of electron spins. Understanding of SOTs on MIs remains elusive, especially how SOTs scale with the MI film thickness. Here, we observe the critical role of dimensionality on the SOT efficiency by studying the MI layer thickness-dependent SOT efficiency in tungsten/thulium iron garnet (W/TmIG) bilayers. We show that the TmIG thin film evolves from two-dimensional to three-dimensional magnetic phase transitions as the thickness increases. We report the significant enhancement of the measured SOT efficiency as the TmIG thickness increases, which is attributed to the increase of the magnetic moment density. We demonstrate the current-induced SOT switching in the W/TmIG bilayers with a TmIG thickness up to 15 nm.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [4];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [4];  [1] more »;  [2]; ORCiD logo [1] « less
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  5. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Nanjing Univ. (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems (SHINES); Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1511446
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012670
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

Shao, Qiming, Tang, Chi, Yu, Guoqiang, Navabi, Aryan, Wu, Hao, He, Congli, Li, Junxue, Upadhyaya, Pramey, Zhang, Peng, Razavi, Seyed Armin, He, Qing Lin, Liu, Yawen, Yang, Pei, Kim, Se Kwon, Zheng, Cheng, Liu, Yizhou, Pan, Lei, Lake, Roger K., Han, Xiufeng, Tserkovnyak, Yaroslav, Shi, Jing, and Wang, Kang L. Role of dimensional crossover on spin-orbit torque efficiency in magnetic insulator thin films. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06059-7.
Shao, Qiming, Tang, Chi, Yu, Guoqiang, Navabi, Aryan, Wu, Hao, He, Congli, Li, Junxue, Upadhyaya, Pramey, Zhang, Peng, Razavi, Seyed Armin, He, Qing Lin, Liu, Yawen, Yang, Pei, Kim, Se Kwon, Zheng, Cheng, Liu, Yizhou, Pan, Lei, Lake, Roger K., Han, Xiufeng, Tserkovnyak, Yaroslav, Shi, Jing, & Wang, Kang L. Role of dimensional crossover on spin-orbit torque efficiency in magnetic insulator thin films. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06059-7
Shao, Qiming, Tang, Chi, Yu, Guoqiang, Navabi, Aryan, Wu, Hao, He, Congli, Li, Junxue, Upadhyaya, Pramey, Zhang, Peng, Razavi, Seyed Armin, He, Qing Lin, Liu, Yawen, Yang, Pei, Kim, Se Kwon, Zheng, Cheng, Liu, Yizhou, Pan, Lei, Lake, Roger K., Han, Xiufeng, Tserkovnyak, Yaroslav, Shi, Jing, and Wang, Kang L. Thu . "Role of dimensional crossover on spin-orbit torque efficiency in magnetic insulator thin films". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06059-7. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1511446.
@article{osti_1511446,
title = {Role of dimensional crossover on spin-orbit torque efficiency in magnetic insulator thin films},
author = {Shao, Qiming and Tang, Chi and Yu, Guoqiang and Navabi, Aryan and Wu, Hao and He, Congli and Li, Junxue and Upadhyaya, Pramey and Zhang, Peng and Razavi, Seyed Armin and He, Qing Lin and Liu, Yawen and Yang, Pei and Kim, Se Kwon and Zheng, Cheng and Liu, Yizhou and Pan, Lei and Lake, Roger K. and Han, Xiufeng and Tserkovnyak, Yaroslav and Shi, Jing and Wang, Kang L.},
abstractNote = {Magnetic insulators (MIs) attract tremendous interest for spintronic applications due to low Gilbert damping and the absence of Ohmic loss. Spin-orbit torques (SOTs) on MIs are more intriguing than magnetic metals since SOTs cannot be transferred to MIs through direct injection of electron spins. Understanding of SOTs on MIs remains elusive, especially how SOTs scale with the MI film thickness. Here, we observe the critical role of dimensionality on the SOT efficiency by studying the MI layer thickness-dependent SOT efficiency in tungsten/thulium iron garnet (W/TmIG) bilayers. We show that the TmIG thin film evolves from two-dimensional to three-dimensional magnetic phase transitions as the thickness increases. We report the significant enhancement of the measured SOT efficiency as the TmIG thickness increases, which is attributed to the increase of the magnetic moment density. We demonstrate the current-induced SOT switching in the W/TmIG bilayers with a TmIG thickness up to 15 nm.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06059-7},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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