TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of inherent energy barrier on spin-orbit torques in magnetic-metal/semimetal heterojunctions
AU - Gao, Tenghua
AU - Qaiumzadeh, Alireza
AU - Troncoso, Roberto E.
AU - Haku, Satoshi
AU - An, Hongyu
AU - Nakayama, Hiroki
AU - Tazaki, Yuya
AU - Zhang, Song
AU - Tu, Rong
AU - Asami, Akio
AU - Brataas, Arne
AU - Ando, Kazuya
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers 22H04964, 19H00864, 20H00337, 20H02593), the JST FOREST Program (Grant Number JPMJFR2032), the Canon Foundation, the Asahi Glass Foundation, the JGC-S Scholarship Foundation, the Spintronics Research Network of Japan (Spin-RNJ), and MEXT Initiative to Establish Next-generation Novel Integrated Circuits Centers (X-NICS) (Grant Number: JPJ011438). T.G. acknowledge the financial support by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number 22K14561). A.Q., R.E.T., and A.B. were supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, Project No. 262633, “QuSpin”. A.Q. was supported by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism Project No. 2019/34/H/ST3/00515, “2Dtronics”.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Spintronic devices are based on heterojunctions of two materials with different magnetic and electronic properties. Although an energy barrier is naturally formed even at the interface of metallic heterojunctions, its impact on spin transport has been overlooked. Here, using diffusive spin Hall currents, we provide evidence that the inherent energy barrier governs the spin transport even in metallic systems. We find a sizable field-like torque, much larger than the damping-like counterpart, in Ni81Fe19/Bi0.1Sb0.9 bilayers. This is a distinct signature of barrier-mediated spin-orbit torques, which is consistent with our theory that predicts a strong modification of the spin mixing conductance induced by the energy barrier. Our results suggest that the spin mixing conductance and the corresponding spin-orbit torques are strongly altered by minimizing the work function difference in the heterostructure. These findings provide a new mechanism to control spin transport and spin torque phenomena by interfacial engineering of metallic heterostructures.
AB - Spintronic devices are based on heterojunctions of two materials with different magnetic and electronic properties. Although an energy barrier is naturally formed even at the interface of metallic heterojunctions, its impact on spin transport has been overlooked. Here, using diffusive spin Hall currents, we provide evidence that the inherent energy barrier governs the spin transport even in metallic systems. We find a sizable field-like torque, much larger than the damping-like counterpart, in Ni81Fe19/Bi0.1Sb0.9 bilayers. This is a distinct signature of barrier-mediated spin-orbit torques, which is consistent with our theory that predicts a strong modification of the spin mixing conductance induced by the energy barrier. Our results suggest that the spin mixing conductance and the corresponding spin-orbit torques are strongly altered by minimizing the work function difference in the heterostructure. These findings provide a new mechanism to control spin transport and spin torque phenomena by interfacial engineering of metallic heterostructures.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168752900&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-40876-9
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-40876-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 37626028
AN - SCOPUS:85168752900
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 5187
ER -