1. Role of dimensional crossover on spin-orbit torque efficiency in magnetic insulator thin films
- Author
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Kang L. Wang, Congli He, Qiming Shao, Pei Yang, Jing Shi, Qing Lin He, Chi Tang, Cheng Zheng, Hao Wu, Xiufeng Han, Guoqiang Yu, Yaroslav Tserkovnyak, Roger K. Lake, Pramey Upadhyaya, Lei Pan, Seyed Armin Razavi, Aryan Navabi, Peng Zhang, Se Kwon Kim, Junxue Li, Yizhou Liu, and Yawen Liu
- Subjects
Science ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Thermal fluctuations ,FOS: Physical sciences ,02 engineering and technology ,01 natural sciences ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Article ,0103 physical sciences ,Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) ,cond-mat.mes-hall ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Thin film ,010306 general physics ,lcsh:Science ,Ohmic contact ,Physics ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,Multidisciplinary ,Spintronics ,Condensed matter physics ,Magnetic moment ,Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics ,Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) ,General Chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Condensed Matter::Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Hall Effect ,cond-mat.mtrl-sci ,Ferromagnetism ,Physics::Space Physics ,Spin Hall effect ,Condensed Matter::Strongly Correlated Electrons ,lcsh:Q ,0210 nano-technology ,Current density - 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., The spin-orbit torque (SOT) induced magnetic switching makes metal/magnetic insulators bilayers preferred in the energy efficient spintronic applications. Here the authors show SOT switching in W/TmIG bilayers and reveal the dimension crossover of SOT as a function of TmIG thickness.
- Published
- 2017