Element Doping Enhanced Charge-to-Spin Conversion Efficiency in Amorphous PtSn4 Dirac Semimetal

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that doping amorphous PtSn4 topological semimetals with elements like Al and CoSi significantly enhances their charge-to-spin conversion efficiency, offering a promising route for low-power spintronic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a doping strategy to improve charge-to-spin conversion in amorphous topological semimetals, which was not previously explored.

Findings

Doping increases charge-to-spin ratio from 0.08 to 0.14.

Dopants modify resistivity of PtSn4.

Enhanced spin-orbit coupling observed with dopants.

Abstract

Topological semimetals (TSs) are promising candidates for low-power spin-orbit torque (SOT) devices due to their large charge-to-spin conversion efficiency. Here, we investigated the charge-to-spin conversion efficiency of amorphous PtSn4 (5 nm)/CoFeB (2.5-12.5 nm) layered structures prepared by a magnetron sputtering method at room temperature. The charge-to-spin ratio of PtSn4/CoFeB bilayers was 0.08, characterized by a spin torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) technique. This ratio can further increase to 0.14 by inducing dopants, like Al and CoSi, into PtSn4. The dopants can also decrease (Al doping) or increase (CoSi doping) the resistivity of PtSn4. The work proposed a way to enhance the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in amorphous TSs with dopants.