2018/06/28 by Jong Min Lee, Kaiming Cai, Guang Yang +4
Engineering · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Memory and Neural Computing #Anisotropy #Condensed matter physics #Domain wall (magnetism) #Engineering #Field (mathematics) #Geometry #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Magnetic domain #Magnetic field #Magnetic properties of thin films #Magnetization #Mathematics #Optics #Orbit (dynamics) #Perpendicular #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin–orbit interaction #Torque #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00773
19 pages, 5 figures
openalex publication_date 2018/06/28 · arxiv created 2018/07/17 · arxiv updated 2018/07/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Spin-orbit torques, which utilize spin currents arising from the spin-orbit coupling, offer a novel method for the electrical switching of the magnetization with perpendicular anisotropy. However, the necessity of an external magnetic field to achieve deterministic switching is an obstacle for realizing practical spin-orbit torque devices with all-electric operation. Here, we report field-free spin-orbit torque switching by exploiting the domain-wall motion in an anti-notched microwire with perpendicular anisotropy, which exhibits multidomain states stabilized by the domain-wall surface tension. The combination of spin-orbit torque, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, and domain-wall surface-tension-induced geometrical pinning allows the deterministic control of the domain wall and offers a novel method to achieve a field-free spin-orbit torque switching. Our work demonstrates the proof of concept of a perpendicular memory cell that can be readily adopted in three-terminal magnetic memory.