Giant bulk spin-orbit torque and efficient electrical switching in single ferrimagnetic FeTb layers with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Kavli Affiliate: Daniel C. Ralph

| First 5 Authors: Qianbiao Liu, Lijun Zhu, Xiyue S. Zhang, David A. Muller, Daniel C. Ralph

| Summary:

Efficient manipulation of antiferromagnetically coupled materials that are
integration-friendly and have strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is
of great interest for low-power, fast, dense magnetic storage and computing.
Here, we report a distinct, giant bulk damping-like spin-orbit torque in
strong-PMA ferrimagnetic Fe100-xTbx single layers that are integration-friendly
(composition-uniform, amorphous, sputter-deposited). For sufficiently-thick
layers, this bulk torque is constant in the efficiency per unit layer
thickness, {xi}_DL^j/t, with a record-high value of 0.036nm-1, and the
dampinglike torque efficiency {xi}_DL^j achieves very large values for thick
layers, up to 300% for 90 nm layers. This giant bulk torque by itself switches
tens of nm thick Fe100-xTbx layers that have very strong PMA and high
coercivity at current densities as low as a few MA/cm2. Surprisingly, for a
given layer thickness, {xi}_DL^j shows strong composition dependence and
becomes negative for composition where the total angular momentum is oriented
parallel to the magnetization rather than antiparallel. Our findings of giant
bulk spin torque efficiency and intriguing torque-compensation correlation will
stimulate study of such unique spin-orbit phenomena in a variety of
ferrimagnetic hosts. This work paves a promising avenue for developing
ultralow-power, fast, dense ferrimagnetic storage and computing devices.

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