We report spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance studies of the efficiency of the damping-like (ζDL) spin-orbit torque exerted on an adjacent ferromagnet film by current flowing in epitaxial (001) and (110) IrO2 thin films. IrO2 possesses Dirac nodal lines (DNLs) in the band structure that are gapped by spin-orbit coupling, which could enable a very high spin Hall conductivity, σSH.

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.

We report measurements of current-induced thermoelectric and spin-orbit torque effects within devices in which multilayers of the semiconducting two-dimensional van der Waals magnet Cr2Ge2Te6 (CGT) are integrated with Pt and Ta metal overlayers. We show that the magnetic orientation of the CGT can be detected accurately either electrically (using an anomalous Hall effect) or optically (using magnetic circular dichroism) with good consistency.

Transition-metal dichalcogenides containing tellurium anions show remarkable charge-lattice modulated structures and prominent interlayer character. Using cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), we map the atomic-scale structures of the high temperature (HT) and low temperature (LT) modulated phases in 1T'-TaTe2. At HT, we directly show in-plane metal distortions which form trimerized clusters and staggered, three-layer stacking.

The interconversion of charge and spin currents via spin-Hall effect is essential for spintronics. Energy-efficient and deterministic switching of magnetization can be achieved when spin polarizations of these spin currents are collinear with the magnetization. However, symmetry conditions generally restrict spin polarizations to be orthogonal to both the charge and spin flows. Spin polarizations can deviate from such direction in nonmagnetic materials only when the crystalline symmetry is reduced.

Spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) is a common method used to measure spin-orbit torque (SOT) in heavy-metal/ferromagnet bilayer structures. In the course of a measurement, other resonant processes such as spin pumping (SP) and heating can cause spin-current or heat flows between the layers, inducing additional resonant voltage signals via the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) and Nernst effects. In the standard ST-FMR geometry, these extra artifacts exhibit a dependence on the angle of an in-plane magnetic field that is identical to the rectification signal from the SOT.

Spin-based memories are attractive for their non-volatility and high durability but provide modest resistance changes, whereas semiconductor logic transistors are capable of providing large resistance changes, but lack memory function with high durability. The recent availability of multiferroic materials provides an opportunity to directly couple the change in spin states of a magnetic memory to a charge change in a semiconductor transistor.

The ability to make controlled patterns of magnetic structures within a nonmagnetic background is essential for several types of existing and proposed technologies. Such patterns provide the foundation of magnetic memory and logic devices, allow the creation of artificial spin-ice lattices, and enable the study of magnon propagation. Here, a novel approach for magnetic patterning that allows repeated creation and erasure of arbitrary shapes of thin-film ferromagnetic structures is reported.

We experimentally investigate the origin of two-magnon scattering (TMS) in heavy-metal (HM)/ferromagnet (FM)/oxide heterostructures (FM = Co, Ni81Fe19, or Fe60Co20B20) by varying the materials located above and below the FM layer. We show that strong TMS in HM/FM/oxide systems arises primarily at the HM/FM interface and increases with the strength of the interfacial spin-orbit coupling and magnetic roughness at this interface. TMS at the FM/oxide interface is relatively weak, even in systems where spin-orbit coupling at this interface generates strong interfacial magnetic anisotropy.

Many key electronic technologies (e.g., large-scale computing, machine learning, and superconducting electronics) require new memories that are at the same time fast, reliable, energy-efficient, and of low-impedance, which has remained a challenge. Nonvolatile magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAMs) driven by spin–orbit torques (SOTs) have promise to be faster and more energy-efficient than conventional semiconductor and spin-transfer-torque magnetic memories.