2017/07/31 by Kyoung-Whan Kim, Kyung-Jin Lee, Jairo Sinova +2
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.104438
published as Phys. Rev. B 96, 104438 (2017) · 24 pages, 9 figures
arxiv created 2017/07/31 · arxiv updated 2017/10/04
We use a perturbative approach to study the effects of interfacial spin-orbit coupling in magnetic multilayers by treating the two-dimensional Rashba model in a fully three-dimensional description of electron transport near an interface. This formalism provides a compact analytic expression for current-induced spin-orbit torques in terms of unperturbed scattering coefficients, allowing computation of spin-orbit torques for various contexts, by simply substituting scattering coefficients into the formulas. It applies to calculations of spin-orbit torques for magnetic bilayers with bulk magnetism, those with interface magnetism, a normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator junction, and a topological insulator/ferromagnet junction. It predicts a dampinglike component of spin-orbit torque that is distinct from any intrinsic contribution or those that arise from particular spin relaxation mechanisms. We discuss the effects of proximity-induced magnetism and insertion of an additional layer and provide formulas for in-plane current, which is induced by a perpendicular bias, anisotropic magnetoresistance, and spin memory loss in the same formalism.