Room temperature magnetization switching in topological insulator-ferromagnet heterostructures by spin-orbit torques
10.1038/s41467-017-01583-4
Crossref journal-article
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Nature Communications (297)
Abstract

AbstractTopological insulators with spin-momentum-locked topological surface states are expected to exhibit a giant spin-orbit torque in the topological insulator/ferromagnet systems. To date, the topological insulator spin-orbit torque-driven magnetization switching is solely reported in a Cr-doped topological insulator at 1.9 K. Here we directly show giant spin-orbit torque-driven magnetization switching in a Bi2Se3/NiFe heterostructure at room temperature captured using a magneto-optic Kerr effect microscope. We identify a large charge-to-spin conversion efficiency of ~1–1.75 in the thin Bi2Se3 films, where the topological surface states are dominant. In addition, we find the current density required for the magnetization switching is extremely low, ~6 × 105 A cm–2, which is one to two orders of magnitude smaller than that with heavy metals. Our demonstration of room temperature magnetization switching of a conventional 3d ferromagnet using Bi2Se3 may lead to potential innovations in topological insulator-based spintronic applications.

Bibliography

Wang, Y., Zhu, D., Wu, Y., Yang, Y., Yu, J., Ramaswamy, R., Mishra, R., Shi, S., Elyasi, M., Teo, K.-L., Wu, Y., & Yang, H. (2017). Room temperature magnetization switching in topological insulator-ferromagnet heterostructures by spin-orbit torques. Nature Communications, 8(1).

Authors 12
  1. Yi Wang (first)
  2. Dapeng Zhu (additional)
  3. Yang Wu (additional)
  4. Yumeng Yang (additional)
  5. Jiawei Yu (additional)
  6. Rajagopalan Ramaswamy (additional)
  7. Rahul Mishra (additional)
  8. Shuyuan Shi (additional)
  9. Mehrdad Elyasi (additional)
  10. Kie-Leong Teo (additional)
  11. Yihong Wu (additional)
  12. Hyunsoo Yang (additional)
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Dates
Type When
Created 7 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 2, 2017, 9:29 p.m.)
Deposited 2 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 22, 2022, 5:19 p.m.)
Indexed 2 weeks, 3 days ago (Aug. 6, 2025, 8:15 a.m.)
Issued 7 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 8, 2017)
Published 7 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 8, 2017)
Published Online 7 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 8, 2017)
Funders 0

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@article{Wang_2017, title={Room temperature magnetization switching in topological insulator-ferromagnet heterostructures by spin-orbit torques}, volume={8}, ISSN={2041-1723}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01583-4}, DOI={10.1038/s41467-017-01583-4}, number={1}, journal={Nature Communications}, publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, author={Wang, Yi and Zhu, Dapeng and Wu, Yang and Yang, Yumeng and Yu, Jiawei and Ramaswamy, Rajagopalan and Mishra, Rahul and Shi, Shuyuan and Elyasi, Mehrdad and Teo, Kie-Leong and Wu, Yihong and Yang, Hyunsoo}, year={2017}, month=nov }