Giant spin transfer torque in atomically thin magnetic bilayers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in atomically thin magnetic bilayers, spin transfer torques can be significantly amplified through multi-reflection tunneling, enabling more efficient magnetization control for advanced storage technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for giant spin transfer torques in 2D magnetic bilayers, leveraging multi-reflection tunneling to enhance angular momentum transfer.

Findings

Spin transfer torques can exceed $rac{ ext{hbar}}{2}$ by orders of magnitude.

The torque per electron follows a universal value depending on the magnetization angle.

Enhanced torques enable improved magnetization manipulation in van der Waals magnets.

Abstract

In cavity quantum electrodynamics, the multiple reflections of a photon between two mirrors defining a cavity is exploited to enhance the light-coupling of an intra-cavity atom. We show that this paradigm for enhancing the interaction of a flying particle with a localized object can be generalized to spintronics based on van der Waals 2D magnets. Upon tunneling through a magnetic bilayer, we find the spin transfer torques per electron incidence can become orders of magnitude larger than $\hbar/2$, made possible by electron's multi-reflection path through the ferromagnetic monolayers as an intermediate of their angular momentum transfer. Over a broad energy range around the tunneling resonances, the damping-like spin transfer torque per electron tunneling features a universal value of $\frac{\hbar}{2} \tan{\frac{\theta}{2}}$, depending only on the angle $\theta$ between the magnetizations. These findings expand the scope of magnetization manipulations for high-performance and high-density storage based on van der Waals magnets.