Itinerant Orbital Hall Effect Mechanism Leading to Large Negative Orbital Torques from Light Metal Vanadium

TL;DR

This study reveals a large negative intrinsic orbital Hall effect in light metal vanadium, driven by itinerant contributions, leading to significant orbital torques with potential for energy-efficient orbitronic devices.

Contribution

We experimentally and theoretically demonstrate the importance of itinerant contributions to the intrinsic orbital Hall effect in vanadium, challenging previous theoretical predictions.

Findings

Negative damping-like torque efficiency observed in V

Large orbital Hall conductivity of approximately -1.44×10^5 Ω^{-1} m^{-1}

Orbital diffusion length of about 15 nm

Abstract

The orbital Hall effect (OHE) has attracted significant attention for developing energy-efficient electronic devices. However, utilizing it in fast, low-power devices requires an enhanced understanding of underlying extrinsic and intrinsic contributions to OHE at timescales ranging from quasi-static to picoseconds. Here, we investigate OHE in light metal vanadium (V) using a combination of selected measurement schemes, spanning the full frequency range. We observe a negative damping-like torque efficiency from V, opposite to conventional theoretical predictions, with a magnitude that depends on the adjacent ferromagnet, a dependence that indicates orbital effects. These results, with consistent torque efficiencies across all frequencies, corroborate a negative and intrinsic OHE in V with a large effective orbital Hall conductivity of $-(1.44 \pm 0.34)\,\frac{\hbar}{2e}\,\times 10^{5}\,\Omega^{-1}\,\mathrm{m}^{-1}$ and a long orbital diffusion length of $(15.0 \pm 2.5)\,\mathrm{nm}$. To explain the observed OHE, we develop a theoretical model incorporating both local and itinerant circulation contributions to OHE. The model agrees excellently with the experimental results, demonstrating that itinerant contributions are essential for a complete physical understanding of intrinsic OHE. Our consistent experimental and theoretical data highlight the importance of itinerant contributions governing the fundamental understanding of intrinsic OHE and the large effects found open pathways for energy-efficient orbitronic devices.