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Observation of Strong Bulk Damping‐Like Spin‐Orbit Torque in Chemically Disordered Ferromagnetic Single Layers

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

Lijun Zhu
Xiyue Zhang
David Muller
Daniel Ralph
Robert Buhrman

Abstract

Strong damping-like spin-orbit torque (τDL) has great potential for enabling ultrafast energy-efficient magnetic memories, oscillators, and logic. So far, the reported τDL exerted on a thin-film magnet must result from an externally generated spin current or from an internal non-equilibrium spin polarization in non-centrosymmetric GaMnAs single crystals. Here, for the first time a very strong, unexpected τDL is demonstrated from current flow within ferromagnetic single layers of chemically disordered, face-centered-cubic CoPt. It is established here that the novel τDL is a bulk effect, with the strength per unit current density increasing monotonically with the CoPt thickness, and is insensitive to the presence or absence of spin sinks at the CoPt surfaces. This τDL most likely arises from a net transverse spin polarization associated with a strong spin Hall effect, while there is no detectable long-range asymmetry in the material. These results broaden the scope of spin-orbitronics and provide a novel avenue for developing single-layer-based spin-torque memory, oscillator, and logic technologies. © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Date Published

Journal

Wiley

Volume

30

Issue

48

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85090981561&doi=10.1002%2fadfm.202005201&partnerID=40&md5=41fa63d9e997a5e156e0b4e54691ce75

DOI

10.1002/adfm.202005201

Funding Source

1542081
1719875
ECCS‐1542081
N00014‐15‐1‐2449
DMR‐1719875

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