Spin-orbit torque magnetometry by wide-field magneto-optical Kerr effect

TL;DR

This paper introduces a wide-field magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) technique for direct, efficient measurement of spin-orbit torque in magnetic heterostructures, simplifying the characterization process without electrical signal interpretation.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel wide-field MOKE method for directly measuring spin-orbit torque in unpatterned magnetic samples, enhancing simplicity and speed of characterization.

Findings

Quantified DL-SOT efficiency as approximately 0.08 in Ta-based heterostructures.

Demonstrated the method's applicability to various sample geometries.

Provided a direct optical approach for DL-SOT measurement without electrical signals.

Abstract

Magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is an efficient approach to probe surface magnetization in thin film samples. Here we present a wide-field MOKE technique that adopts a K$\"o$hler illumination scheme to characterize the current-induced damping-like spin-orbit torque (DL-SOT) in micronsized and unpatterned magnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Through a current-induced hysteresis loop shift analysis, we quantify the DL-SOT efficiency of a Ta-based heterostructure with bar-shaped geometry, Hall-cross geometry, and unpatterned geometry to be $|\xi_{DL}|\approx$ 0.08. The proposed wide-field MOKE approach therefore provides an instant and direct characterization of DL-SOT, without the need of any further interpretation on electrical signals.