2017/03/24 by Rahul Mishra, Jiawei Yu, Xuepeng Qiu +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.118.167201
arxiv created 2017/03/24 · arxiv updated 2017/05/24
While current-induced spin-orbit torques (SOTs) have been extensively studied in ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, ferrimagnets have been less studied. Here we report the presence of enhanced spin-orbit torques resulting from negative exchange interaction in ferrimagnets. The effective field and switching efficiency increase substantially as CoGd approaches its compensation point, giving rise to 9 times larger spin-orbit torques compared to that of non-compensated one. The macrospin modelling results also support efficient spin-orbit torques in a ferrimagnet. Our results suggest that ferrimagnets near compensation can be a new route for spin-orbit torque applications due to their high thermal stability and easy current-induced switching assisted by negative exchange interaction.