Orbital torque switching in perpendicularly magnetized materials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates efficient orbital torque switching in perpendicularly magnetized materials using Zirconium, showing significant improvements over traditional materials and providing insights for energy-efficient orbitronic device development.

Contribution

It introduces Zirconium as an effective orbital Hall material for magnetization switching, with higher torque efficiency and lower current density than existing materials.

Findings

Orbital torque efficiency of ~0.78 in Zr OHM surpasses CoFeB/Gd/CoFeB.

Full magnetization switching achieved at ~2.6x10^6 A/cm^2 current density.

Theoretical calculations confirm the role of spin-orbit correlation differences.

Abstract

The orbital Hall effect in light materials has attracted considerable attention for developing novel orbitronic devices. Here we investigate the orbital torque efficiency and demonstrate the switching of the perpendicularly magnetized materials through the orbital Hall material (OHM), i.e., Zirconium (Zr). The orbital torque efficiency of approximately 0.78 is achieved in the Zr OHM with the perpendicularly magnetized [Co/Pt]3 sample, which significantly surpasses that of the perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB/Gd/CoFeB sample (approximately 0.04). Such notable difference is attributed to the different spin-orbit correlation strength between the [Co/Pt]3 sample and the CoFeB/Gd/CoFeB sample, which has been confirmed through the theoretical calculations. Furthermore, the full magnetization switching of the [Co/Pt]3 sample with a switching current density of approximately 2.6x106 A/cm2 has been realized through Zr, which even outperforms that of the W spin Hall material. Our finding provides a guideline to understand orbital torque efficiency and paves the way to develop energy-efficient orbitronic devices.