Effect of rare earth metal on the spin-orbit torque in magnetic heterostructures
Name
Beach_Effect of rare.pdf
Size
1.15 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
73ab7253daf82d9ca170adbcf5264605
Author(s)
Ueda, Kohei
Pai, Chi-Feng
Tan, Aik Jun
Mann, Maxwell
Beach, Geoffrey Stephen
Date Issued
June 2016
Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Ueda, Kohei et al. “Effect of Rare Earth Metal on the Spin-Orbit Torque in Magnetic Heterostructures.” Applied Physics Letters 108, 23 (June 2016): 232405 © 2016 Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We report the effect of the rare earth metal Gd on current-induced spin-orbit torques (SOTs) in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/Gd heterostructures, characterized using harmonic measurements and spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR). By varying the Gd metal layer thickness from 0 nm to 8 nm, harmonic measurements reveal a significant enhancement of the effective fields generated from the Slonczewski-like and field-like torques. ST-FMR measurements confirm an enhanced effective spin Hall angle and show a corresponding increase in the magnetic damping constant with increasing Gd thickness. These results suggest that Gd plays an active role in generating SOTs in these heterostructures. Our finding may lead to spin-orbitronics device application such as non-volatile magnetic random access memory, based on rare earth metals.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4953348
