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Deterministic switching of perpendicular magnetization by out-of-plane anti-damping magnon torques

Nature Nanotechnology (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Spin-wave excitations of magnetic moments (or magnons) can transport spin angular momentum in insulating magnetic materials. This property distinguishes magnonic devices from traditional electronics, where power consumption results from electrons’ movement. Recently, magnon torques have been used to switch perpendicular magnetization in the presence of an external magnetic field. Here we present a material system composed of WTe2/antiferromagnetic insulator NiO/ferromagnet CoFeB heterostructures that allows magnetic field-free switching of the perpendicular magnetization. The magnon currents, with a spin polarization canting of −8.5° relative to the sample plane, traverse the 25-nm-thick polycrystalline NiO layer while preserving their original polarization direction, subsequently exerting an out-of-plane anti-damping magnon torque on the ferromagnetic layer. Using this mechanism, we achieve a 190-fold reduction in power consumption in PtTe2/WTe2/NiO/CoFeB heterostructures compared to Bi2Te3/NiO/CoFeB control samples, which only exhibit in-plane magnon torques. Our field-free demonstration contributes to the realization of all-electric, low-power, perpendicular magnetization switching devices.

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Fig. 1: Observation of out-of-plane anti-damping magnon torques.
Fig. 2: Magnon torque-driven switching of perpendicular magnetization in WTe2 (8 nm)/NiO (25 nm)/CoFeB.
Fig. 3: NiO thickness dependence of spin–orbit torques in WTe2 (8 nm)/NiO (t)/CoFeB.
Fig. 4: Field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization and high spin Hall conductivity in PtTe2 (d)/WTe2 (8-d)/NiO (25 nm)/FM.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and the Supplementary Information. Other relevant data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore Investigatorship (NRFI06-2020-0015) (H.Y.), NRF Singapore and A*STAR under its Quantum Engineering Programme (NRF2022-QEP2-03-P13) (H.Y.) and SpOT-LITE programme (A*STAR grant, A18A6b0057) through RIE2020 funds (H.Y.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Fei Wang, Guoyi Shi.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Fei Wang, Guoyi Shi, Dongsheng Yang, Chenhui Zhang, Jiayu Lei, Yuchen Pu, Shuhan Yang & Hyunsoo Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Magnetic Molecules and Magnetic Information Materials of Ministry of Education and School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Shanxi Normal University, Taiyuan, China

    Fei Wang

  3. Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore

    Hui Ru Tan & Anjan Soumyanarayanan

  4. Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Anjan Soumyanarayanan

  5. Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Mehrdad Elyasi

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Contributions

F.W. and H.Y. conceived and designed the experiments. F.W., G.S. and S.Y. grew the samples. F.W. carried out reflection high-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transport and switching measurements. G.S. and Y.P. performed ST-FMR measurements and device fabrications. D.Y. performed the Raman, X-ray diffraction and terahertz measurements. H.R.T. carried out the transmission electron microscopy measurements under the supervision of A.S. C.Z. measured hysteresis loops. J.L. calculated the current-induced Oersted field. M.E. provided theoretical support. F.W. analysed the data. F.W. and H.Y. wrote the paper with contributions from all authors. H.Y. supervised the project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mehrdad Elyasi or Hyunsoo Yang.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Andrii Chumak, Romain Lebrun and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wang, F., Shi, G., Yang, D. et al. Deterministic switching of perpendicular magnetization by out-of-plane anti-damping magnon torques. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01741-y

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