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Magnetic bimerons are topologically nontrivial spin textures in in-plane easy-axis magnets, which can be used as particle-like information carriers. Here, we report a theoretical study on the nonreciprocal dynamics of asymmetrical ferrimagnetic (FiM) bimerons induced by spin currents. The FiM bimerons have the ability to move at a speed of kilometers per second and do not show the skyrmion Hall effect at the angular momentum compensation point. Our micromagnetic simulations and analytical results demonstrate that spin currents are able to induce the nonreciprocal transport and a drift motion of the FiM bimeron even if the system is at the angular momentum compensation point. By analyzing the current-induced effective fields, we find that the nonreciprocal transport is attributed to the asymmetry of the bimeron structure. Our results are useful for understanding the physics of bimerons in ferrimagnets and may provide guidelines for building bimeron-based spintronic devices., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures promising for future high-density and nonvolatile memory. It is crucial to understand the current-driven skyrmion dynamics in the presence of deformation, of which an analytical model, however, remains elusive. Here we extend Thiele's model by considering both the radial and tangential forces. Our model attributes the skyrmion deformation to the current-induced rotational symmetry breaking, which includes magnetization canting and domain wall width variation. Our predictions of skyrmion radius and nonlinear dynamics are consistent with micromagnetic simulation results. Besides, we show that by applying an in-plane magnetic field, the deformation of a skyrmion can be suppressed, and even the compression of a skyrmion can be achieved. Our model provides a generic way to analyze the skyrmion deformation and may inspire applications based on nonlinear skyrmion dynamics., accepted by Physical Review Applied

The promise of high-density and low-energy-consumption devices motivates the search for layered structures that stabilize chiral spin textures such as topologically protected skyrmions. At the same time, layered structures provide a new platform for the discovery of new physics and effects. Recently discovered long-range intrinsic magnetic orders in the two-dimensional van der Waals materials offer new opportunities. Here we demonstrate the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and N\'eel-type skyrmions are induced at the WTe2/Fe3GeTe2 interface. Fe3GeTe2 is a ferromagnetic material with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We demonstrate that the strong spin orbit interaction in 1T'-WTe2 does induce a large interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at the interface with Fe3GeTe2 due to the inversion symmetry breaking to stabilize skyrmions. Transport measurements show the topological Hall effect in this heterostructure for temperatures below 100 K. Furthermore, Lorentz transmission electron microscopy is used to directly image N\'eel-type skyrmions along with aligned and stripe-like domain structure. This interfacial coupling induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is estimated to have a large energy of 1.0 mJ/m^2, which can stabilize the N\'eel-type skyrmions in this heterostructure. This work paves a path towards the skyrmionic devices based on van der Waals heterostructures., Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures in the main text

This paper presents experimental characterizations and device modeling on the nanoscale MOSFETs with 40 nm low-power CMOS technology. Systematic temperature-dependent ${I}_{D}$ - ${V}_{GS}$ results of NMOS/PMOS devices reveal that both the threshold voltage and the effective channel mobility exhibit strong correlations with the device size owning to the depletion region broadening around the gate channel at cryogenic temperatures. By taking the temperature-driven gate geometry effects into consideration, a generic physical model with universal fitting parameters is proposed to depict the transfer characteristics of all CMOS transistors across the device size chart, and further validations of the modified BSIM compact model might pave the way for an accurate design of cryogenic electronics applications.

Spin-orbit torque (SOT) is an emerging technology that enables the efficient manipulation of spintronic devices. The initial processes of interest in SOTs involved electric fields, spin-orbit coupling, conduction electron spins and magnetization. More recently interest has grown to include a variety of other processes that include phonons, magnons, or heat. Over the past decade, many materials have been explored to achieve a larger SOT efficiency. Recently, holistic design to maximize the performance of SOT devices has extended material research from a nonmagnetic layer to a magnetic layer. The rapid development of SOT has spurred a variety of SOT-based applications. In this Roadmap paper, we first review the theories of SOTs by introducing the various mechanisms thought to generate or control SOTs, such as the spin Hall effect, the Rashba-Edelstein effect, the orbital Hall effect, thermal gradients, magnons, and strain effects. Then, we discuss the materials that enable these effects, including metals, metallic alloys, topological insulators, two-dimensional materials, and complex oxides. We also discuss the important roles in SOT devices of different types of magnetic layers. Afterward, we discuss device applications utilizing SOTs. We discuss and compare three-terminal and two-terminal SOT-magnetoresistive random-access memories (MRAMs); we mention various schemes to eliminate the need for an external field. We provide technological application considerations for SOT-MRAM and give perspectives on SOT-based neuromorphic devices and circuits. In addition to SOT-MRAM, we present SOT-based spintronic terahertz generators, nano-oscillators, and domain wall and skyrmion racetrack memories. This paper aims to achieve a comprehensive review of SOT theory, materials, and applications, guiding future SOT development in both the academic and industrial sectors., an invited paper in the "Advances in Magnetics" series

Low efficiency of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos is largely attributable to imperfect reprogramming of the donor nucleus. The differences in epigenetic reprogramming between female and male buffalo cloned embryos remain unclear. We explored the effects of donor cell sex differences on the development of SCNT embryos. We and then compared the expression of DNA methylation (5-methylcytosine-5mC and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine-5hmC) and the expression level of relevant genes, and histone methylation (H3K9me2 and H3K9me3) level in SCNT-♀ and SCNT-♂ preimplantation embryos with in vitro fertilization (IVF) counterparts. In the study, we showed that developmental potential of SCNT-♀ embryos was greater than that of SCNT-♂ embryos (p < 0.05). 5mC was mainly expressed in SCNT-♀ embryos, whereas 5hmC was majorly expressed in SCNT-♂ embryos (p < 0.05). The levels of DNA methylation (5mC and 5hmC), Dnmt3b, TET1 and TET3 in the SCNT-♂ embryos were higher than those of SCNT-♀ embryos (p < 0.05). In addition, there were no significant differences in the expression of H3K9me2 at eight-stage of the IVF, SCNT-♀ and SCNT-♂embryos (p < 0.05). However, H3K9me3 was upregulated in SCNT-♂ embryos at the eight-cell stage (p < 0.05). Thus, KDM4B ectopic expression decreased the level of H3K9me3 and significantly improved the developmental rate of two-cell, eight-cell and blastocysts of SCNT-♂ embryos (p < 0.05). Overall, the lower levels of DNA methylation (5mC and 5hmC) and H3K9me3 may introduce the greater developmental potential in buffalo SCNT-♀ embryos than that of SCNT-♂ embryos.

The perpendicular shape anisotropy-spin transfer torque-magnetic random access memories (PSASTT-MRAMs) takes advantage of the nanopillar free-layer geometry for securing a good thermal stability factor from the shape anisotropy of the nanomagnet. Such a concept is particularly well-suited for small junctions down to a few nanometers. At such a volume size, the nanopillar can be effectively modeled as a Stoner-Wohlfarth (SW) particle, and the shape anisotropy scales with the spontaneous magnetization by ~ Ms^2. For almost all ferromagnets, Ms is a strong function of temperature, therefore, the temperature-dependent shape anisotropy is an important factor to be considered in any modeling of the temperature-dependent performance of PSA-STT-MRAMs. In this work, we summarize and discuss various possible temperature-dependent contributions to the thermal stability factor and coercivity of the PSA-STT-MRAMs by modeling and comparing different temperature scaling and parameters. We reveal nontrivial corrections to the thermal stability factor by considering both temperature-dependent shape and interfacial anisotropies. The coercivity, blocking temperature, and electrical switching characteristics that resulted from incorporating such a temperature dependence are also discussed, in conjugation with the nanomagnet dimension and coherence volume., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Summary Modulation of electronic properties in spintronic interfaces (spinterfaces) can give rise to the optimization and even emergence of abundant spintronic effects. However, a proof-of-concept demonstration of such a strategy has rarely been achieved. In this paper, we study the interlayer exchange coupling effect in a synthetic magnetic multilayer system [Pt/Co]2/VO2/[Co/Pt]2, where atomically thin phase-change material VO2 is adopted as a spinterface with reversible metal-to-insulator transition. Repeatable switching from antiferromagnetic coupling through insulating spinterface to ferromagnetic coupling through metallic spinterface is observed in this multilayer system. Further analyses indicate that such an evolution originates from two distinct coupling mechanisms of spin-dependent tunneling and Rudermann-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction determined by the electronic states of VO2. As an experimental demonstration of VO2-tailored interlayer exchange coupling effect, this work highlights the great potential of spinterface as a magic building block in beyond-CMOS electronic devices.

Understanding the transport of spin current in antiferromagnetic materials is indispensable to develop antiferromagnetic spintronic devices. In this work, we study the spin current transmission through an antiferromagnetic IrMn insertion layer in a W/IrMn($t$)/CoFeB structure by measuring the spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) and spin-orbit torque (SOT). The temperature dependences of SMR and SOT effective fields indicate that the spin current transmission reaches its maximum at the N\'eel temperature of IrMn. The enhancement is ascribed to the increase in the interfacial spin mixing conductance, which is related to the maximum magnetic susceptibility of the IrMn layer at the N\'eel temperature. The spin transmission decreases monotonically as a function of the IrMn thickness, which is different from the case with an insulating antiferromagnetic NiO insertion layer in previous works. In addition, we found that the spin transmission through an antiferromagnetic IrMn layer is independent of the exchange bias orientation. Our results suggest that the spin current transmission through the IrMn layer (from W layer to CoFeB layer) is mainly mediated by spin-polarized electrons rather than magnons, which is likely due to the absence of the effective excitation of magnons in the IrMn layer by the spin-polarized current.

Spin-orbit torque (SOT) switching of magnetization is a promising emerging technology for nonvolatile spintronic memory and logic applications. However, deterministic switching of perpendicular magnetization with SOTs requires an additional symmetry breaking, which is typically provided by an external magnetic field, making it impractical for applications. In this work, we disclose that by the insertion of a slightly asymmetric light-metal layer at the heavy metal-ferromagnet interface of SOT heterostructures, current-induced out-of-plane effective magnetic fields are introduced that enable deterministic switching without an external magnetic field. We obtain uniform perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and switching current density despite the asymmetry of the light-metal layer, and we show the scalability of our approach by studying device sizes that differ by 2 orders of magnitude. Our work provides a practical route for utilization of SOTs for magnetization switching on the wafer scale and paves the way for the practical application of SOT-based technology.

Integration of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator with a magnetically ordered material provides an additional degree of freedom through which the resulting exotic quantum states can be controlled. Here, an experimental observation is reported of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in a magnetically-doped topological insulator grown on the antiferromagnetic insulator Cr2 O3 . The exchange coupling between the two materials is investigated using field-cooling-dependent magnetometry and polarized neutron reflectometry. Both techniques reveal strong interfacial interaction between the antiferromagnetic order of the Cr2 O3 and the magnetic topological insulator, manifested as an exchange bias when the sample is field-cooled under an out-of-plane magnetic field, and an exchange spring-like magnetic depth profile when the system is magnetized within the film plane. These results identify antiferromagnetic insulators as suitable candidates for the manipulation of magnetic and topological order in topological insulator films.

Spin-orbit torques (SOTs), which rely on spin current generation from charge current in a nonmagnetic material, promise an energy-efficient scheme for manipulating magnetization in magnetic devices. A critical topic for spintronic devices using SOTs is to enhance the charge to spin conversion efficiency. Besides, the current-induced spin polarization is usually limited to in-plane, whereas out-of-plane spin polarization could be favored for efficient perpendicular magnetization switching. Recent advances in utilizing two important classes of van der Waals materials$-$topological insulators and transition-metal dichalcogenides$-$as spin sources to generate SOT shed light on addressing these challenges. Topological insulators such as bismuth selenide have shown a giant SOT efficiency, which is larger than those from three-dimensional heavy metals by at least one order of magnitude. Transition-metal dichalcogenides such as tungsten telluride have shown a current-induced out-of-plane spin polarization, which is allowed by the reduced symmetry. In this review, we use symmetry arguments to predict and analyze SOTs in van der Waal material-based heterostructures. We summarize the recent progress of SOT studies based on topological insulators and transition-metal dichalcogenides and show how these results are in line with the symmetry arguments. At last, we identify unsolved issues in the current studies and suggest three potential research directions in this field., Comment: Comments are welcome

The low occurring temperature of quantum anomalous Hall effect is a result of weak ferromagnetism and trivial band involvement., Quantum anomalous Hall effect has been observed in magnetically doped topological insulators. However, full quantization, up until now, is limited within the sub–1 K temperature regime, although the material’s magnetic ordering temperature can go beyond 100 K. Here, we study the temperature limiting factors of the effect in Cr-doped (BiSb)2Te3 systems using both transport and magneto-optical methods. By deliberate control of the thin-film thickness and doping profile, we revealed that the low occurring temperature of quantum anomalous Hall effect in current material system is a combined result of weak ferromagnetism and trivial band involvement. Our findings may provide important insights into the search for high-temperature quantum anomalous Hall insulator and other topologically related phenomena.

Breaking the time reversal symmetry (TRS) in a topological insulator (TI) by introducing a magnetic order gives rise to exotic quantum phenomena. One of the promising routes to inducing a magnetic order in a TI is utilizing magnetic proximity effect between a TI and a strong magnetic insulator (MI). In this article, we demonstrate a TI/MI heterostructure prepared through transferring a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown Bi2Se3 film onto a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) substrate via wet transfer. The transferred Bi2Se3 exhibits excellent quality over a large scale. Moreover, through wet transfer we are able to engineer the interface and perform a comparative study to probe the proximity coupling between Bi2Se3 and YIG under different interface conditions. A detailed investigation of both the anomalous Hall effect and quantum corrections to the conductivity in magnetotransport measurements reveals an induced magnetic order as well as TRS breaking in the transferred Bi2Se3 film on YIG. In contrast, a thin layer ...

In a magnetic tunnel junction, Joule heat increases the voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy effect in the free layer and thereby pushes the amplification gain for microwaves beyond one.

Ferrimagnetic insulators promise low-power and high-speed spintronic applications, thanks to their insulating nature and fast dynamics near compensation points. In a ferrimagnetic insulator/heavy metal heterostructure, we investigate field- and current-induced magnetization switching at various temperatures and observe distinct magnetization switching behaviors owing to spin–orbit torque (SOT) and heating effect. We have realized SOT switching across the magnetization compensation temperature and discovered that the SOT switching is strongly heat-assisted: the temperature is always above the compensation temperature while the SOT switching happens in our case. Moreover, we show that the SOT efficiency is strongly magnetization-dependent by characterizing the current dependence of SOT efficiency and explaining the anomalous SOT switching back phenomena in the presence of a titled external field. Our results reveal the critical role of Joule heating on the dynamics of magnetic insulators and pave the way for the application of spintronic devices based on magnetic insulators.

A strong driving force can deform skyrmions and modify their trajectories beyond theoretical limits.

Magnetic skyrmions are intensively explored for potential applications in ultralow-energy data storage and computing. To create practical skyrmionic memory devices, it is necessary to electrically create and manipulate these topologically protected information carriers in thin films, thus realizing both writing and addressing functions. Although room-temperature skyrmions have been previously observed, fully electrically controllable skyrmionic memory devices, integrating both of these functions, have not been developed to date. Here, we demonstrate a room-temperature skyrmion shift memory device, where individual skyrmions are controllably generated and shifted using current-induced spin-orbit torques. Particularly, it is shown that one can select the device operation mode in between (i) writing new single skyrmions or (ii) shifting existing skyrmions by controlling the magnitude and duration of current pulses. Thus, we electrically realize both writing and addressing of a stream of skyrmions in the device. This prototype demonstration brings skyrmions closer to real-world computing applications.

Magnetic topological insulators such as Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3 provide a platform for the realization of versatile time-reversal symmetry-breaking physics. By constructing heterostructures with N\'eel order in an antiferromagnetic CrSb and magnetic topological order in Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3, we realize emergent interfacial magnetic phenomena which can be tailored through artificial structural engineering. Through deliberate geometrical design of heterostructures and superlattices, we demonstrate the use of antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in manipulating the magnetic properties of the topological surface massive Dirac fermions. This work provides a new framework on integrating topological insulators with antiferromagnetic materials and unveils new avenues towards dissipationless topological antiferromagnetic spintronics., Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures

Spintronics is regarded as a promising solution for resolving the major challenging issues related to the scaling of Si-based complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology as it offers the advantages of combing the spin and charge degrees of freedom. After decades of progress, the quintessence to achieve practical low-dissipation applications lies in the ability to manipulate magnetic states by electric field via several different physical mechanisms. Among them, the emergence of the spin-orbit coupling engineering has been shown to dramatically reduce energy dissipation and improve the performance as well as to multiply spintronic device possibilities and functionalities for a new generation of ultralow-power nonvolatile spintronic systems. This article provides a review of the current development including fundamental physics and experimental implementations of electric-field-controlled ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors, voltage control of magnetic anisotropy, spin-orbit-torque-assisted magnetization switching, and antiferromagnetic (AFM) material-based spin-orbitronic systems. We provide an assessment in terms of scaling of energy, speed, and size. Finally, we offer an outlook of electric-field-controlled spintronic applications, particularly in view of their integration with CMOS to form hybrid spintronic circuits.

Among van der Waals (vdW) layered ferromagnets, Fe

The switching of magnetization by current-induced spin-orbit torque (SOT) has potential applications for energy-efficient spintronic devices. In the past, most conventional works have been focused on SOT in heavy metals. Here the SOT from a ferromagnetic metal is investigated, and two mechanisms of the field-free SOT induced magnetization switching are demonstrated to be from the interlayer exchange coupling and the tilted perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We exclude the spin torque contribution from the anomalous Hall effect and the interfacial Rashba effect combined with spin precession. A spin Hall angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{\mathrm{SH}}=\ensuremath{-}0.022$ of CoFeB is obtained by the current-induced hysteresis loop shift method, and the obtained ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{\mathrm{SH}}$ is comparable with heavy metals. This work demonstrates that a considerable SOT can come from a ferromagnetic metal, and indicates the unconventional origin of spin-orbit coupling.

Non-volatile memory and computing technology rely on efficient read and write of ultra-tiny information carriers that do not wear out. Magnetic skyrmions are emerging as a potential carrier since they are topologically robust nanoscale spin textures that can be manipulated with ultralow current density. To date, most of skyrmions are reported in metallic films, which suffer from additional Ohmic loss and thus high energy dissipation. Therefore, skyrmions in magnetic insulators are of technological importance for low-power information processing applications due to their low damping and the absence of Ohmic loss. Moreover, they attract fundamental interest in studying various magnon-skyrmion interactions11. Skyrmions have been observed in one insulating material Cu2OSeO3 at cryogenic temperatures, where they are stabilized by bulk Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Here, we report the observation of magnetic skyrmions that survive above room temperature in magnetic insulator/heavy metal heterostructures, i.e., thulium iron garnet/platinum. The presence of these skyrmions results from the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at the interface and is identified by the emergent topological Hall effect. Through tuning the magnetic anisotropy via varying temperature, we observe skyrmions in a large window of external magnetic field and enhanced stability of skyrmions in the easy-plane anisotropy regime. Our results will help create a new platform for insulating skyrmion-based room temperature low dissipation spintronic applications., Initially submitted version on 10/03/2018 with a revised arXiv webpage title

International audience; charge-spin conversion and ii) the speed of SOT switching. Generally, SOT in a magnetic layer originates from the spin current injection from the adjacent layer with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The charge-spin conversion efficiency is vital and can be quantified as the θ = / SHE s 3D e 3D J J (dimensionless) or q J J t θ = = / / ICS s 3D e 2D SHE s , where s 3D J represents the 3D spin current density; e 3D J and e 2D J represent the 3D and 2D electric (charge) current density, respectively; and t s represents the effective SOC thickness. In the conventional SOC materials such as HMs, in principle, the θ SHE should be much less than 1, which limits their potential applications in the ultralow power magnetization manipulation. [4] In topological insulators (TIs), SOC from topologically protected surface states, where the spin and orbital angular momenta are locked (spin-momentum locking [5-7]), gives rise to a very large θ SHE [8-12] (or q ICS) and the resulting ultralow switching current density [13-15] at low temperature. Recently, several works have reported the room-temperature SOT switching by TIs, [16-19] which opens the door for the applications of topological insulators. However, there are fundamental limitations of FMs: the low switching speed (≈ns) and the stray-field interaction, which limit the operation speed and the density of magnetic memory, respectively. Antiferromagnets (AFMs) can afford the THz ultrafast spin dynamics; [20] however, AFMs produce zero stray field and zero spin polarization because of the opposite coupled spin lattices from the same element, which makes it difficult to detect the antiferromagnetic order efficiently. [21] Ferrimagnets have two antiferromagnetically coupled spin sublattices, and the contribution of each spin sublattice to their properties can be tuned by the composition or temperature. At the magnetic compensation point, ferrimagnets show similar properties of AFMs, such as ultrafast spin dynamics, [22,23] while the detection is still feasible because of the different responses to the optical or electrical excitations from two spin sublattices. [23-25] Here, we combine TIs [Bi 2 Se 3 and (BiSb) 2 Te 3 ] with nearly compensated ferrimagnets [Gd x (FeCo) 1−x ], and investigate the room-temperature SOT in TI/Gd x (FeCo) 1−x systems. By changing the composition of Gd x (FeCo) 1−x , we can tune the net magnetic moment and the dominated spin sublattice (CoFe-rich and Gd-rich). The robust room-temperature SOT switching Utilizing spin-orbit torque (SOT) to switch a magnetic moment provides a promising route for low-power-dissipation spintronic devices. Here, the SOT switching of a nearly compensated ferrimagnet Gd x (FeCo) 1−x by the topological insulator [Bi 2 Se 3 and (BiSb) 2 Te 3 ] is investigated at room temperature. The switching current density of (BiSb) 2 Te 3 (1.20 × 10 5 A cm −2) is more than one order of magnitude smaller than that in conventional heavy-metal-based structures, which indicates the ultrahigh efficiency of charge-spin conversion (>1) in topological surface states. By tuning the net magnetic moment of Gd x (FeCo) 1−x via changing the composition, the SOT efficiency has a significant enhancement (6.5 times) near the magnetic compensation point, and at the same time the switching speed can be as fast as several picoseconds. Combining the topological surface states and the nearly compensated ferrimagnets provides a promising route for practical energy-efficient and high-speed spintronic devices. Topological Spintronics Spintronic devices have been considered as one of the promising candidates for the next-generation memory and logic devices, and spin-orbit torque (SOT) provides an efficient way to manipulate the magnetic moment by electrical method with ultralow power dissipation and ultrafast operating speed. [1-3] Beyond previous studies of SOT switching based on conventional heavy metal/ferromagnet (HM/FM) heterostructures, two crucial issues need to be resolved: improving: i) the efficiency of

We use temperature-dependent Hall measurements to identify contributions of spin Hall, magnetic proximity, and sublattice effects to the anomalous Hall signal in heavy metal/ferrimagnetic insulator heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This approach enables detection of both the magnetic proximity effect onset temperature and the magnetization compensation temperature and provides essential information regarding the interfacial exchange coupling. Onset of a magnetic proximity effect yields a local extremum in the temperature-dependent anomalous Hall signal, which occurs at higher temperature as magnetic insulator thickness increases. This magnetic proximity effect onset occurs at much higher temperature in Pt than W. The magnetization compensation point is identified by a sharp anomalous Hall sign change and divergent coercive field. We directly probe the magnetic proximity effect using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and polarized neutron reflectometry, which reveal an antiferromagnetic coupling between W and the magnetic insulator. Finally, we summarize the exchange-coupling configurations and the anomalous Hall-effect sign of the magnetized heavy metal in various heavy metal/magnetic insulator heterostructures.