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1. High‐Efficiency Magnon‐Mediated Magnetization Switching in All‐Oxide Heterostructures with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202203038  

   Zheng, Dongxing; Lan, Jin; Fang, Bin; Li, Yan; Liu, Chen; Ledesma‐Martin, J. Omar; Wen, Yan; Li, Peng; Zhang, Chenhui; Ma, Yinchang; et al (July 2022, Advanced Materials)

   Abstract The search for efficient approaches to realize local switching of magnetic moments in spintronic devices has attracted extensive attention. One of the most promising approaches is the electrical manipulation of magnetization through electron‐mediated spin torque. However, the Joule heat generated via electron motion unavoidably causes substantial energy dissipation and potential damage to spintronic devices. Here, all‐oxide heterostructures of SrRuO₃/NiO/SrIrO₃are epitaxially grown on SrTiO₃single‐crystal substrates following the order of the ferromagnetic transition metal oxide SrRuO₃with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, insulating and antiferromagnetic NiO, and metallic transition metal oxide SrIrO₃with strong spin–orbit coupling. It is demonstrated that instead of the electron spin torques, the magnon torques present in the antiferromagnetic NiO layer can directly manipulate the perpendicular magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer. This magnon mechanism may significantly reduce the electron motion‐related energy dissipation from electron‐mediated spin currents. Interestingly, the threshold current density to generate a sufficient magnon current to manipulate the magnetization is one order of magnitude smaller than that in conventional metallic systems. These findings suggest a route for developing highly efficient all‐oxide spintronic devices operated by magnon current. 

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2. Excitation and Amplification of Spin Waves by Spin–Orbit Torque

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201802837  

   Divinskiy, Boris; Demidov, Vladislav E.; Urazhdin, Sergei; Freeman, Ryan; Rinkevich, Anatoly B.; Demokritov, Sergej O. (July 2018, Advanced Materials)

   Abstract The emerging field of nanomagnonics utilizes high‐frequency waves of magnetization—spin waves—for the transmission and processing of information on the nanoscale. The advent of spin‐transfer torque has spurred significant advances in nanomagnonics, by enabling highly efficient local spin wave generation in magnonic nanodevices. Furthermore, the recent emergence of spin‐orbitronics, which utilizes spin–orbit interaction as the source of spin torque, has provided a unique ability to exert spin torque over spatially extended areas of magnonic structures, enabling enhanced spin wave transmission. Here, it is experimentally demonstrated that these advances can be efficiently combined. The same spin–orbit torque mechanism is utilized for the generation of propagating spin waves, and for the long‐range enhancement of their propagation, in a single integrated nanomagnonic device. The demonstrated system exhibits a controllable directional asymmetry of spin wave emission, which is highly beneficial for applications in nonreciprocal magnonic logic and neuromorphic computing. 

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3. Spin-orbit-locked hyperbolic polariton vortices carrying reconfigurable topological charges

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s43593-022-00018-y  

   Wang, Mingsong; Hu, Guangwei; Chand, Saroj; Cotrufo, Michele; Abate, Yohannes; Watanabe, Kenji; Taniguchi, Takashi; Grosso, Gabriele; Qiu, Cheng-Wei; Alù, Andrea (December 2022, eLight)

   Abstract The topological features of optical vortices have been opening opportunities for free-space and on-chip photonic technologies, e.g., for multiplexed optical communications and robust information transport. In a parallel but disjoint effort, polar anisotropic van der Waals nanomaterials supporting hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HP 2 s) have been leveraged to drastically boost light-matter interactions. So far HP 2 studies have been mainly focusing on the control of their amplitude and scale features. Here we report the generation and observation of mid-infrared hyperbolic polariton vortices (HP 2 Vs) associated with reconfigurable topological charges. Spiral-shaped gold disks coated with a flake of hexagonal boron nitride are exploited to tailor spin–orbit interactions and realise deeply subwavelength HP 2 Vs. The complex interplay between excitation spin, spiral geometry and HP 2 dispersion enables robust reconfigurability of the associated topological charges. Our results reveal unique opportunities to extend the application of HP 2 s into topological photonics, quantum information processing by integrating these phenomena with single-photon emitters, robust on-chip optical applications, sensing and nanoparticle manipulation. 

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4. Large spin–orbit torque in bismuthate-based heterostructures

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-01080-1  

   Edgeton, Anthony L; Harris, Isaac A; Campbell, Neil G; Chai, Yahong; Mazur, Marcel M; Gurung, Gautam; Huang, Xiaoxi; Susarla, Sandhya; Tsymbal, Evgeny Y; Ralph, Daniel C; et al (December 2023, Nature Electronics)

   The wider application of spintronic devices requires the development of new material platforms that can efficiently manipulate spin. Bismuthate-based superconductors are centrosymmetric systems that are generally thought to offer weak spin–orbit coupling. Here, we report a large spin–orbit torque driven by spin polarization generated in heterostructures based on the bismuthate BaPb1-xBixO3 (which is in a non-superconducting state). Using spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance and d.c. non-linear Hall measurements, we measure a spin–orbit torque efficiency of around 2.7 and demonstrate current driven magnetization switching at current densities of 4×10^5 A〖cm〗^(-2). We suggest that the unexpectedly large current-induced torques could be the result of an orbital Rashba effect associated with local inversion symmetry breaking in BaPb1-xBixO3. 

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5. Controlling spin current polarization through non-collinear antiferromagnetism

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17999-4  

   Nan, T.; Quintela, C. X.; Irwin, J.; Gurung, G.; Shao, D. F.; Gibbons, J.; Campbell, N.; Song, K.; Choi, S. -Y.; Guo, L.; et al (December 2020, Nature Communications)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract The interconversion of charge and spin currents via spin-Hall effect is essential for spintronics. Energy-efficient and deterministic switching of magnetization can be achieved when spin polarizations of these spin currents are collinear with the magnetization. However, symmetry conditions generally restrict spin polarizations to be orthogonal to both the charge and spin flows. Spin polarizations can deviate from such direction in nonmagnetic materials only when the crystalline symmetry is reduced. Here, we show control of the spin polarization direction by using a non-collinear antiferromagnet Mn 3 GaN, in which the triangular spin structure creates a low magnetic symmetry while maintaining a high crystalline symmetry. We demonstrate that epitaxial Mn 3 GaN/permalloy heterostructures can generate unconventional spin-orbit torques at room temperature corresponding to out-of-plane and Dresselhaus-like spin polarizations which are forbidden in any sample with two-fold rotational symmetry. Our results demonstrate an approach based on spin-structure design for controlling spin-orbit torque, enabling high-efficient antiferromagnetic spintronics. 

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