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1. Symmetry Control of Unconventional Spin–Orbit Torques in IrO ₂

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202301608  

   Patton, Michael; Gurung, Gautam; Shao, Ding‐Fu; Noh, Gahee; Mittelstaedt, Joseph A.; Mazur, Marcel; Kim, Jong‐Woo; Ryan, Philip J.; Tsymbal, Evgeny Y.; Choi, Si‐Young; et al (July 2023, Advanced Materials)

   Abstract Spin–orbit torques generated by a spin current are key to magnetic switching in spintronic applications. The polarization of the spin current dictates the direction of switching required for energy‐efficient devices. Conventionally, the polarizations of these spin currents are restricted to be along a certain direction due to the symmetry of the material allowing only for efficient in‐plane magnetic switching. Unconventional spin–orbit torques arising from novel spin current polarizations, however, have the potential to switch other magnetization orientations such as perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which is desired for higher density spintronic‐based memory devices. Here, it is demonstrated that low crystalline symmetry is not required for unconventional spin–orbit torques and can be generated in a nonmagnetic high symmetry material, iridium dioxide (IrO₂), using epitaxial design. It is shown that by reducing the relative crystalline symmetry with respect to the growth direction large unconventional spin currents can be generated and hence spin–orbit torques. Furthermore, the spin polarizations detected in (001), (110), and (111) oriented IrO₂thin films are compared to show which crystal symmetries restrict unconventional spin transport. Understanding and tuning unconventional spin transport generation in high symmetry materials can provide a new route towards energy‐efficient magnetic switching in spintronic devices. 

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2. Anisotropic spin-orbit torque generation in epitaxial SrIrO ₃ by symmetry design

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812822116  

   Nan, T.; Anderson, T. J.; Gibbons, J.; Hwang, K.; Campbell, N.; Zhou, H.; Dong, Y. Q.; Kim, G. Y.; Shao, D. F.; Paudel, T. R.; et al (August 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the interaction between the electron spin and the orbital angular momentum, can unlock rich phenomena at interfaces, in particular interconverting spin and charge currents. Conventional heavy metals have been extensively explored due to their strong SOC of conduction electrons. However, spin-orbit effects in classes of materials such as epitaxial 5 d -electron transition-metal complex oxides, which also host strong SOC, remain largely unreported. In addition to strong SOC, these complex oxides can also provide the additional tuning knob of epitaxy to control the electronic structure and the engineering of spin-to-charge conversion by crystalline symmetry. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature generation of spin-orbit torque on a ferromagnet with extremely high efficiency via the spin-Hall effect in epitaxial metastable perovskite SrIrO 3 . We first predict a large intrinsic spin-Hall conductivity in orthorhombic bulk SrIrO 3 arising from the Berry curvature in the electronic band structure. By manipulating the intricate interplay between SOC and crystalline symmetry, we control the spin-Hall torque ratio by engineering the tilt of the corner-sharing oxygen octahedra in perovskite SrIrO 3 through epitaxial strain. This allows the presence of an anisotropic spin-Hall effect due to a characteristic structural anisotropy in SrIrO 3 with orthorhombic symmetry. Our experimental findings demonstrate the heteroepitaxial symmetry design approach to engineer spin-orbit effects. We therefore anticipate that these epitaxial 5 d transition-metal oxide thin films can be an ideal building block for low-power spintronics. 

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3. Multiple magnetic droplet solitions from exotic spin–orbit torques

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0099491  

   Klause, Robin; Hoffmann, Axel (June 2022, Applied Physics Letters)

   Materials with large spin–orbit interactions generate pure spin currents with spin polarizations parallel to the interfacial surfaces that give rise to conventional spin–orbit torques. These spin–orbit torques can only efficiently and deterministically switch magnets with in-plane magnetization. Additional symmetry breaking, such as in non-collinear antiferromagnets, can generate exotic, unconventional spin–orbit torques that are associated with spin polarizations perpendicular to the interfacial planes. Here, we use micromagnetic simulations to investigate whether such exotic spin–orbit torques can generate magnetic droplet solitions in out-of-plane magnetized geometries. We show that a short, high current pulse followed by a lower constant current can nucleate and stabilize magnetic droplets. Through specific current pulse lengths, it is possible to control the number of droplets in such a system, since torques are generated over a large area. Additionally, the nucleation current scales with the out-of-plane component of the spin polarization and is linear as a function of magnetic field strength. 

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4. Giant field-like torque by the out-of-plane magnetic spin Hall effect in a topological antiferromagnet

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26453-y  

   Kondou, Kouta; Chen, Hua; Tomita, Takahiro; Ikhlas, Muhammad; Higo, Tomoya; MacDonald, Allan H.; Nakatsuji, Satoru; Otani, YoshiChika (November 2021, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Spin-orbit torques (SOT) enable efficient electrical control of the magnetic state of ferromagnets, ferrimagnets and antiferromagnets. However, the conventional SOT has severe limitation that only in-plane spins accumulate near the surface, whether interpreted as a spin Hall effect (SHE) or as an Edelstein effect. Such a SOT is not suitable for controlling perpendicular magnetization, which would be more beneficial for realizing low-power-consumption memory devices. Here we report the observation of a giant magnetic-field-like SOT in a topological antiferromagnet Mn₃Sn, whose direction and size can be tuned by changing the order parameter direction of the antiferromagnet. To understand the magnetic SHE (MSHE)- and the conventional SHE-induced SOTs on an equal footing, we formulate them as interface spin-electric-field responses and analyzed using a macroscopic symmetry analysis and a complementary microscopic quantum kinetic theory. In this framework, the large out-of-plane spin accumulation due to the MSHE has an inter-band origin and is likely to be caused by the large momentum-dependent spin splitting in Mn₃Sn. Our work demonstrates the unique potential of antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetals in overcoming the limitations of conventional SOTs and in realizing low-power spintronics devices with new functionalities. 

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5. A perspective on electrical generation of spin current for magnetic random access memories

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0084551  

   Safranski, Christopher; Sun, Jonathan Z.; Kent, Andrew D. (April 2022, Applied Physics Letters)

   Spin currents are used to write information in magnetic random access memory (MRAM) devices by switching the magnetization direction of one of the ferromagnetic electrodes of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) nanopillar. Different physical mechanisms of conversion of charge current to spin current can be used in two-terminal and three-terminal device geometries. In two-terminal devices, charge-to-spin conversion occurs by spin filtering in the MTJ's ferromagnetic electrodes and present day MRAM devices operate near the theoretically expected maximum charge-to-spin conversion efficiency. In three-terminal devices, spin–orbit interactions in a channel material can also be used to generate large spin currents. In this Perspective article, we discuss charge-to-spin conversion processes that can satisfy the requirements of MRAM technology. We emphasize the need to develop channel materials with larger charge-to-spin conversion efficiency—that can equal or exceed that produced by spin filtering—and spin currents with a spin polarization component perpendicular to the channel interface. This would enable high-performance devices based on sub-20 nm diameter perpendicularly magnetized MTJ nanopillars without need of a symmetry breaking field. We also discuss MRAM characteristics essential for CMOS integration. Finally, we identify critical research needs for charge-to-spin conversion measurements and metrics that can be used to optimize device channel materials and interface properties prior to full MTJ nanopillar device fabrication and characterization. 

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