Deterministic switching of perpendicular magnetization using N\'eel order-engineered out-of-plane spin in a single ferromagnet

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates deterministic out-of-plane spin polarization and perpendicular magnetization switching in a single ferromagnet, engineered via Ne9el order in an adjacent antiferromagnetic insulator, enabling field-free spintronic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to achieve out-of-plane spin polarization and switching without additional layers, using Ne9el order engineering in a single ferromagnet.

Findings

Achieved field-free perpendicular switching without spin torque layers.

Engineered out-of-plane spin polarization via Ne9el order.

Demonstrated CMOS-compatible energy-efficient spintronic switching.

Abstract

Perpendicular switching of a ferromagnet induced by spin torques is crucial for building high density spin-based memory and logic devices, where out-of-plane spin polarization ($\sigma_z$) has become a long sought-after goal for deterministic switching without assisted magnetic fields. Here we report the observation of$\sigma_z$ and resultant field-free perpendicular switching in a single ferromagnet without any spin torque generation layers, where $\sigma_z$ is achieved through the self-generated spin polarization in the ferromagnet that is engineered by the N\'eel order of an adjacent antiferromagnetic insulator. We further demonstrated that $\sigma_z$ emerges when the self-generated spin polarization is collinear with the N\'eel vector, where the spin current is reflected back to the ferromagnet, along with rotated spin polarization toward the out-of-plane direction to induce $\sigma_z$. Since no current is shunted by antiferromagnetic insulators and the N\'eel order does not rely on single-crystalline materials, these results may provide a CMOS-compatible solution for constructing energy-efficient field-free spintronic devices.