Spin Hall Magnetoresistance in Metallic Bilayers

Tunable inertia of chiral magnetic domain walls

The time it takes to accelerate an object from zero to a given velocity depends on the applied force and the environment. If the force ceases, it takes exactly the same time to completely decelerate. A magnetic domain wall is a topological object that has been observed to follow this behaviour. Here we show that acceleration and deceleration times of chiral Neel walls driven by current are different in a system with low damping and moderate Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange constant. The time needed to accelerate a domain wall with current via the spin Hall torque is much faster than the time it needs to decelerate once the current is turned off. The deceleration time is defined by the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange constant whereas the acceleration time depends on the spin Hall torque, enabling tunable inertia of chiral domain walls. Such unique feature of chiral domain walls can be utilized to move and position domain walls with lower current, key to the development of storage class memory devices.

The controlled motion of magnetic domain walls in nanowire conduits forms the basis of emerging memory and information processing devices. Here, the authors report a pulse-length dependent quasi-static velocity of current-driven chiral domain walls, showing that their inertia is tunable.

Spin-transfer torque in ferromagnetic bilayers generated by anomalous Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance

We propose an experimental scheme to determine the spin-transfer torque efficiency excited by the spin-orbit interaction in ferromagnetic bilayers from the measurement of the longitudinal magnetoresistace. Solving a diffusive spin-transport theory with appropriate boundary conditions gives an analytical formula of the longitudinal charge current density. The longitudinal charge current has a term that is proportional to the square of the spin-transfer torque efficiency and that also depends on the ratio of the film thickness to the spin diffusion length of the ferromagnet. Extracting this contribution from measurements of the longitudinal resistivity as a function of the thickness can give the spin-transfer torque efficiency.

Rashba-Edelstein Magnetoresistance in Metallic Heterostructures

We report the observation of magnetoresistance originating from Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in a metallic heterostructure: the Rashba-Edelstein (RE) magnetoresistance. We show that the simultaneous action of the direct and inverse RE effects in a Bi/Ag/CoFeB trilayer couples current-induced spin accumulation to the electric resistance. The electric resistance changes with the magnetic-field angle, reminiscent of the spin Hall magnetoresistance, despite the fact that bulk SOC is not responsible for the magnetoresistance. We further found that, even when the magnetization is saturated, the resistance increases with increasing the magnetic-field strength, which is attributed to the Hanle magnetoresistance in this system.

Spin-orbit torque switching without an external field using interlayer exchange coupling

Manipulation of the magnetization of a perpendicular ferromagnetic free layer by spin-orbit torque (SOT) is an attractive alternative to spin-transfer torque (STT) in oscillators and switches such as magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) where a high current is passed across an ultrathin tunnel barrier. A small symmetry-breaking bias field is usually needed for deterministic SOT switching but it is impractical to generate the field externally for spintronic applications. Here, we demonstrate robust zero-field SOT switching of a perpendicular CoFe free layer where the symmetry is broken by magnetic coupling to a second in-plane exchange-biased CoFe layer via a nonmagnetic Ru or Pt spacer. The preferred magnetic state of the free layer is determined by the current polarity and the sign of the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC). Our strategy offers a potentially scalable solution to realize bias-field-free switching that can lead to a generation of SOT devices, combining a high storage density and endurance with a low power consumption.

Spin-Hall-Effect-Assisted Electroresistance in Antiferromagnets via 10(5) A/cm(2) dc Current

Antiferromagnet (AFM) spintronics with reduced electrical current is greatly expected to process information with high integration and low power consumption. In Pt/FeMn and Ta/FeMn hybrids, we observe significant resistance variation (up to 7% of the total resistance) manipulated by 10(5) A/cm(2) dc current. We have excluded the contribution of isotropic structural effects, and confirmed the critical role of the spin Hall injection from Pt (or Ta) to FeMn. This electrical current-manipulated resistance (i.e. electroresistance) is proposed to be attributed to the spin-Hall-effect-induced spin-orbit torque in FeMn. Similar results have also been detected in plain IrMn films, where the charge current generates spin current via the spin Hall effect with the existence of Ir atoms. All the measurements are free from external magnetic fields and ferromagnets. Our findings present an interesting step towards high-efficiency spintronic devices.