United States

Spin-orbitronics exploits the interplay between charge and spin currents enabled by the spin-orbit coupling in non-magnetic systems. This spin-orbit coupling is indeed the phenomenon at the origin of spin-charge interconversions in bulk materials, via the spin Hall effect, and at surfaces presenting a broken inversion symmetry, via the Rashba-Edelstein effect. Recently, spin-to-charge conversion studies in Metal/SrTiO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-based two-dimensional (2D) electron gases have revealed a high conversion efficiency via the inverse Rashba-Edelstein effect [1]. The following demonstration of non-volatile electric-control of the spin-to-charge conversion further brings to light the great potential of these quantum materials for novels ultra-low power spintronics applications [2]. Achieving a metal barrier thickness study is thus desirable to gain insight on the different contributions to the charge-to-spin conversion in metal/SrTiO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-based 2D electron gases.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Here, we report spin-orbit torques results obtained by spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) in Metal/SrTiO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-based 2D electron gases, for different metal barrier thicknesses. A demonstration of charge-to-spin conversion at the metal/oxide interface is firstly achieved by ST-FMR on both Ta and Mg barrier-based heterostructures. The spin-orbit torques are further investigated for different temperatures, revealing temperature-dependent symmetric and antisymmetric ST-FMR signals.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;We further achieve the non-volatile electric-control of the sheet resistance of the 2D electron gas in ST-FMR devices, which makes it possible to investigate the gate dependence of the charge-to-spin conversion via ST-FMR techniques. Finally, the dependence of the charge-to-spin conversion with the metallic barrier thickness is discussed, providing routes to improve the spin-orbit torques, and opening the way to optimized spintronics devices based on Metal/SrTiO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; 2D electron gases.

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/c24dfd85212876a78c60e1c793e05850.jpg)

Fig.1: ST-FMR signals in Mg/SrTiO3 heterostructure at 77K



2022 Joint MMM-INTERMAG

Spin-Orbit Torques Dependence on the Metal Barrier Thickness in Metal/SrTiO3-based Two-Dimensional Electron Gases Studied by Spin-Torque Ferromagnetic Resonance

The 15th Joint MMM-INTERMAG Conference (2022 Joint) is sponsored jointly by AIP Publishing and the IEEE Magnetics Society. Members of the international scientific and engineering communities interested in recent developments in fundamental and applied magnetism are invited to attend and contribute to the technical sessions. The technical program will include invited and contributed papers in oral and poster sessions, invited symposia, a plenary session, and an evening session, with about 1500 presentations overall. This Conference provides an outstanding opportunity for worldwide participants to meet their colleagues and collaborators and discuss developments in all areas of magnetism research.

The 2022 Joint Conference will offer both in-person and prerecorded on-demand content.

For tickets to the event, please register at the following link: https://magnetism.org/register

Please register for the Joint MMM-Intermag conference to join the event.

This Conference provides an outstanding opportunity for worldwide participants to meet their colleagues and collaborators and discuss developments in all areas of magnetism research.

Spin-orbitronics exploits the interplay between charge and spin currents enabled by the spin-orbit coupling in non-magnetic systems. This spin-orbit coupling is indeed the phenomenon at the origin of spin-charge interconversions in bulk materials, via the spin Hall effect, and at surfaces presenting a broken inversion symmetry, via the Rashba-Edelstein effect. Recently, spin-to-charge conversion studies in Metal/SrTiO3-based two-dimensional (2D) electron gases have revealed a high conversion efficiency via the inverse Rashba-Edelstein effect [1]. The following demonstration of non-volatile electric-control of the spin-to-charge conversion further brings to light the great potential of these quantum materials for novels ultra-low power spintronics applications [2]. Achieving a metal barrier thickness study is thus desirable to gain insight on the different contributions to the charge-to-spin conversion in metal/SrTiO3-based 2D electron gases. Here, we report spin-orbit torques results obtained by spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) in Metal/SrTiO3-based 2D electron gases, for different metal barrier thicknesses. A demonstration of charge-to-spin conversion at the metal/oxide interface is firstly achieved by ST-FMR on both Ta and Mg barrier-based heterostructures. The spin-orbit torques are further investigated for different temperatures, revealing temperature-dependent symmetric and antisymmetric ST-FMR signals. We further achieve the non-volatile electric-control of the sheet resistance of the 2D electron gas in ST-FMR devices, which makes it possible to investigate the gate dependence of the charge-to-spin conversion via ST-FMR techniques. Finally, the dependence of the charge-to-spin conversion with the metallic barrier thickness is discussed, providing routes to improve the spin-orbit torques, and opening the way to optimized spintronics devices based on Metal/SrTiO3 2D electron gases.

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/c24dfd85212876a78c60e1c793e05850.jpg)

Fig.1: ST-FMR signals in Mg/SrTiO3 heterostructure at 77K

poster

Graphene (Gr) is a particularly interesting material for spintronic and technological applications due to its low intrinsic spin orbit coupling and hyperfine interaction, which lead to high spin lifetimes and coherence lengths [1]. Furthermore, it is common in spintronic applications to introduce a structural isomorph to Gr, hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) to improve lattice matching in heterostructure engineering[2]. Specifically for spintronic and spin-caloritronic applications, a ferrimagnetic (FM) layer is often used as a magnon source. Therefore, it is important to understand the interfacial properties of FM/Gr(hBN) interfaces. Here, we explore the change in magnetic anisotropy in the FM insulator Nickel Ferrite (NFO) due to the inclusion of monolayer Gr and hBN. This was done by performing radio frequency transverse susceptibility measurements utilizing a tunnel diode oscillator technique, which is a sensitive probe of the system’s effective anisotropy[3]. Specifically, in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OOP) measurements were taken for bare NFO, NFO/Gr, NFO/hBN samples. We find that the inclusion of the Gr layer reduces the overall anisotropy for both IP and OOP drastically, by a factor of 2, in the entire temperature of 20 – 300 K. On the other hand, the inclusion of the hBN layer slightly reduces the in-plane anisotropy at low temperature (T &lt; 180 K) but increases it at high temperature (T &gt; 180 K). Since NFO is an insulator and Gr is a semimetal there is a large conductivity difference at the interface which likely leads to charge transfer reducing the overall anisotropy[4]. This is further supported by the less drastic change with the inclusion of monolayer hBN, a semiconductor. Relative to NFO, magnetometry measurements show an enhancement of the saturation magnetization in NFO/Gr and NFO/hBN, highlighting an additional role played by the magnetic proximity effect.

Proximity and Charge-Transfer Mediated Magnetism at Nickel Ferrite Interfaces with Graphene and Hexagonal Boron Nitride Monolayers

Over the past few years, the magnetic proximity effect (MPE) has gained intense attention of the magnetic community.[1] Despite the fact that the influence of MPE in bilayers of ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials has been extensively investigated, studies on MPE in bilayers of a FM and a non-collinear magnet are rather limited. Manganese Phosphide (MnP) is a well-known metallic magnet with helical spin configurations at low temperatures.[2-3] Our recent study on highly crystalline MnP thin films has shown the presence of strain-mediated magnetism with two magnetic transitions: a paramagnetic (PM) to FM transition at TC ~ 279 K and a FM to helimagnetic transition at TN ~ 110 K.[2] This finding has motivated us to investigate how the helimagnetic spin texture of the MnP film is influenced when another FM layer is placed in its close proximity. To address this, we sputtered a 5 nm Fe film on the 100 nm MnP film, with a 2 nm-thick capping layer of Ta, at room temperature. Magnetometry measurements show a large increase in TC and a large decrease in TN for the Fe/MnP bilayer (TC ~ 300 K and TN ~ 75 K) relative to the MnP sample (TC ~ 279 K and TN ~ 110 K), indicating the presence of strong MPE. The M-H data indicate that in the helimagnetic regime (T &lt; 75 K), the coercive field (HC) of the Fe/MnP sample (HCFe/MnP ~ 1367 Oe) has nearly doubled when compared to the average value of the individual HC of MnP and Fe reference samples (((HCFe + HCMnP)/2) = 780 Oe). Interestingly, the interfacial magnetic coupling strength, defined as ΔHC =|((HCFe + HCMnP)/2) - HCFe/MnP|, decreases significantly with decreasing temperature in the helimagnetic regime. Furthermore, the ratio of remanence magnetization (Mr) to saturation magnetization (Ms) of Fe/MnP is higher than the average value of individual Mr/Ms ratios of MnP and Fe. Overall, the observed shapes of the M-H loops of the Fe/MnP bilayer deviate remarkably from those of the reference samples. Since the exchange bias effect is negligible in the Fe/MnP system, these observations consistently validate the presence of the MPE.

Magnetic proximity effect on the helimagnetic state of highly crystalline manganese phosphide films

Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Ablation process performed on the surface of a Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES) has shown a significant decrease in the iron losses up to 20%. This is due to a modification of the domain structure that is re-organized using a total energy minimization. Therefore, this leads to a change in the permeability and in the magneto-mechanical behavior also known as the magnetostriction. These modifications are respectively due to the modification of the magnetostatic and the magnetoelastic energy contributions. In this study, the effect of the ablation on the magnetic and the magneto-mechanical properties is revealed and compared to classical irradiation and scribing processes in the static and the dynamic working conditions. Synchronous real time magnetic and mechanical measurements are performed using a dedicated test bench: the Single Sheet Tester with a mechanical adaptation using a fixed-free sample with a piezoelectric accelerometer. GOES samples are measured and compared before and after treatment for different optimal laser parameters. Results have shown that different performances can be simultaneously obtained: - Magnetostriction reduction up to 50% - Permeability increase at low induction up to 20% Physical origins of the change in both static and dynamic magneto-mechanical properties due a laser process will be discussed and proposed to orientate the optimization of laser process parameters towards the best compromise between iron loss reduction, permeability increase and magnetic induced vibrations.

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/f3a530642ac29649dfcf907edea86602.jpg)

Fig. 1: Peak-to-Peak Magnetostriction: Ref (Blue), ablation 1 (Red), ablation 2 (Black)

Ultra-short Pulsed Laser Ablation Process on a GO FeSi Electrical Single Sheet: Impact on the Static/Dynamic Magneto-mechanical Behavior and Optimization

Structural inversion asymmetry together with spin-orbit coupling can induce interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (iDMI) in Heavy-Metal/Ferromagnet/Metal-Oxide heterostructuctures [1]. In such thin film systems with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy the iDMI combined with dipolar interactions can stabilize non-collinear chiral magnetic spin textures such as Néel Domain Walls (DWs), eventually forming magnetic skyrmion bubbles [2]. The iDMI amplitude and sign determine the spin texture of the DWs and their chirality [3]. Moreover, skyrmions can be moved by a current thanks to spin orbit torques, in a direction depending on their chirality. In this study we report on a deterministic control of their motion related to a chirality switch of magnetic skyrmion bubbles in Ta/FeCoB/TaOx trilayer, covered by a ZrO2 ionic conductor (Fig. 1a). Monitored under a polar-Magneto-Optical Kerr-Effect (p-MOKE) microscope we apply a gate voltage through a transparent Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) electrode and demonstrate by real space tracking the reversal of their current-induced motion (Fig. 1b). Micromagnetic simulations together with similar measurements on magnetic domain walls confirm the possibility to invert the chirality, eventually leading to versatile spintronic and logic devices. We have furthermore optimized the fabrication of skyrmion Hall-bar tracks (Fig. 2a), containing magnetic skyrmion bubbles (Fig. 2b), with deported ITO top electrodes. These skyrmion racetracks of different shapes and sizes allow to assess the effect of gate voltage and lateral confinement on the skyrmion motion. Eventually, the gate would play the role of a pinning potential and control the skyrmion velocity. In a similar Hall-bar geometry with multiple Hall-contacts we envision to demonstrate the electrical tracking of a moving skyrmion in replacement for the MOKE images that are limited in temporal and spatial resolution.

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/72f0bad1edbe95eec301d09cc8f44523.jpg)

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/ce72f946d632a2abff10be5391d298b4.jpg)

Gate-Controlled Skyrmions in Magnetic Trilayer Tracks

Gate-Controlled Skyrmions in Magnetic Trilayer Tracks

Magnetic skyrmions are localized objects with a non-trivial topology. With their small sizes and stable magnetic properties, skyrmions are of great interest in particular due to their potential applications in future-generation magnetic storage devices. Multilayer ferromagnetic thin-film materials hosting room temperature (RT) skyrmions stabilized by interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in [1,2] allow a high tunability in terms of skyrmion size and density, making them very promising platforms for investigating functional skyrmions for future applications. However, several obstacles remain before implementing ferromagnetic skyrmions into applications. One of these problems is that the dipolar interactions in these materials makes it difficult to stabilize small skyrmions without an external field [3,4,5]. Another major difficulty concerns the skyrmion Hall effect which deflects the skyrmions to the device edges [6,7]. Both of these problems could potentially be solved by having skymions in antiferromagnetic (AF) materials, where the dipolar fields are minimized by having the two subsystems aligned antiparallel to each other, and the skyrmion Hall effect is compensated. This has been achieved by Legrand et al. in Ref. [5], where RT skyrmions at zero field were generated in a synthetic AF multilayer system and observed by magnetic force microscopy (MFM). Following the same general approach as in Ref. [5], we construct a system that can host high-density skyrmions at zero external field using interlayer exchange coupling and having Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers as starting blocks. These skyrmion-generating layers are coupled with different bias layers that act as an external magnetic field. We will show magnetic characterization and high-resolution MFM imaging results of the impact of various bias layers and coupling strengths on the overall system properties.

Room Temperature Skyrmions at Zero Field in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt-based Systems with Antiferromagnetic Coupling

Room temperature magnetic skyrmions have the potential of enabling compact and energetically-efficient storage such as racetrack memories, albeit with two fundamental challenges: 1) Not being able to restrict their motion along straight paths, leading to skyrmions being lost at the device edge; one possible solution is the use of antiferromagnetically-coupled skyrmions [1]; and 2) Not having stable inter-skyrmion distances, leading to fluctuating distances among bits; a potential solution was revealed with the experimental observation of coexisting skyrmions and chiral bobbers [2], opening the possibility that a chain of binary data bits could be encoded by the two states. However, these observations were in B20-type crystalline materials and at low temperatures. In our previous work [3], we developed a ferro/ferri/ferromagnetic (FM/FI/FM) trilayer system that can host two distinct skyrmions at room temperature and can serve as a solution to the second challenge. The two phases represent a tubular skyrmion (running through the entire trilayer) and an incomplete skyrmion (existing in the FM layers only), as revealed from magnetic force microscopy (MFM) data and micromagnetic simulations. Such a two-skyrmion phase system exists for specific magnetic parameters of the individual sublayers. By exploring this parameter space, in this new study we reveal that the densities of the two skyrmions can be tuned via different routes: either by changing the magnetic properties of the FI or those of the FM. More specifically, we investigate the trilayer system when changing the thickness of the FM multilayers by using a combination of MFM, vibrating sample magnetometry and Brillouin light scattering experiments together with micromagnetic simulations. We show how the competition between different energies allows for the stabilization of either incomplete-only skyrmions, combination of both or mainly tubular skyrmions (Figure 1). Having a good understanding of the interplay between different magnetic properties can lead to better-tailored systems and possibly bring skyrmions a step closer to applications.

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/5ed95347749731b8a51d650ec9a59f11.jpg)

Fig. 1: Sample schematics and MFM images of three FM/FI/FM samples with varying Fe-layer thickness.

Tuning the Density of Incomplete and Tubular Skyrmions in Ferro/ferri/ferromagnetic Trilayers

The spin-momentum locking of surface states in topological quantum materials can produce a resistance that scales linearly with magnetic and electric fields and also depends on the current direction relative to the crystalline axes1,2. Such a bilinear magneto-electric resistance (BMER) effect offers a completely new approach for magnetic storage and magnetic field sensing applications. The effects demonstrated so far, however, are relatively weak or only for low temperatures1-3. In this presentation, we report a strong room-temperature BMER effect in topological Dirac semimetal α-Sn thin films4. The epitaxial α-Sn films were grown by magnetron sputtering on single-crystal silicon substrates at room temperature. They showed room-temperature BMER responses that are 106 times larger than previously reported at room temperature,2 and also larger than that previously reported at low temperatures.1,3 These results represent a major advance toward realistic BMER applications. Our experimental data also made possible the first characterization of the three-dimensional, Fermi-level spin texture of topological surface states in α-Sn thin films.

Large Magneto-Electric Resistance in the Topological Dirac Semimetal α-Sn

Magnetic two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdWs) materials are receiving increased attention due to their exceptional properties and potential applications in spintronic devices. Because exchange bias and spin-orbit torque (SOT)-driven magnetization switching are basic ingredients for spintronic devices, it is of pivotal importance to demonstrate these effects in the 2D vdWs material-based magnetic heterostructures. In this work, we employ a vacuum exfoliation approach to fabricate Fe3GeTe2 (FGT)/Ir22Mn78 (IrMn) and FGT/Pt bilayers, which have high-quality interfaces. An out-of-plane exchange bias of up to 895 Oe is obtained in the former bilayer, which is larger than that of the previously studied bilayers. In the latter bilayer, the SOT switching of the perpendicularly magnetized FGT is realized, which exhibits higher SOT-driven switching performance compared to the previously studied FGT/Pt bilayer devices with interfacial oxidation. The minimum of SOT efficiency is further determined to be 0.18 ± 0.04, comparable to the previously reported values for Pt/Co and Pt/CoFeB bilayers. This work highlights the importance of the high-quality interface for the exchange bias and SOT effect and may pave the way for implementing 2D vdWs in spintronic devices.

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/acc94c8690514d4c33c542dacf41d203.jpg)

Magnetic properties and SOT-driven perpendicular magnetization switching in the FGT/Pt bilayer device. (a) Hall resistance as a function of the out-of-plane field at different temperatures. (b) Arrott plots of the Hall resistance for the FGT/Pt device. The extracted Tc is about 208 K. (c) RAHE as a function of in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OOP) magnetic field at 100 K. (d) Current-driven perpendicular magnetization switching for in-plane magnetic fields of +2000 Oe and −2000 Oe at 100 K with clockwise and anticlockwise switching polarity, respectively. The dashed lines mark the RAHE at saturated magnetization states.

Exchange bias and spin-orbit torque in the Fe3GeTe2-based heterostructures prepared by vacuum exfoliation approach

The spin to charge interconversion has been intensively studied in 5d materials such as platinum. In these non-magnetic systems, the relation between the charge current, the spin current and its polarization is strongly constrained by symmetries. Recently, a strong spin to charge interconversion efficiency has been obtained in 3d ferromagnets with strong spin orbit interactions such as NiCu. In ferromagnetic materials, the symmetry breaking induced by the presence of the magnetization lifts the geometrical constraints on the relation between charge and spin currents. However, the link between the ferromagnetic order and spin to charge interconversion remains unclear. By using spin pumping measurements, we injected a spin current from a CoFeB layer into the weak ferromagnets Ni60Cu40 and Ni50Cu50. The charge current generated by the spin to charge interconversion was subsequently measured across the Curie temperatures (Tc) of these alloys. A change of sign of the generated spin current was observed across the Tc when the CoFeB and NiCu layers are in direct contact. However, this sign change disappears when inserting a copper layer between the two. This indicates that two ferromagnetic materials can be coupled and influence each other at the Ferromagnetic Resonance (FMR), thus questioning the results of studies claiming the observation of spin fluctuation and spin-charge interconversion using FMR measurements. Most importantly, the fact that the generated charge current does not change across the Curie temperature of NiCu alloys indicates that the spin-charge interconversion does not depend on the magnetic phase [1]. The independence of the interconversion on the magnetic phase shows either that the band structure of NiCu is not affected, or that its change across the Tc does not influence the spin-charge interconversion. These results consequently provide an important contribution to both the experimental and theoretical understanding of the spin to charge interconversion in ferromagnetic materials.

Independence of the Inverse Spin Hall Effect with the Magnetic Phase in Thin NiCu Films

Magnonics is an emergent frontier of magnetism, which aims at using magnons as spin information carriers to avoid the Joule heating and electron scattering in current electron-based spintronics. In general, magnon currents can be excited both thermally and electrically in magnetic insulators, by applying charge currents in an adjacent metallic layer. Here, the magnon junctions (MJs) are studied in the Y3Fe5O12/CoO/Y3Fe5O12 heterostructure composed by ferrimagnetic insulator Y3Fe5O12(YIG) and antiferromagnetic insulator CoO. The temperature gradient driven magnon current transmission could be effectively controlled by the relative orientations of bottom and top YIG layers, i.e., high transmission for the parallel state and low transmission for the antiparallel state, demonstrating the spin transistor-like functions based on magnons. The electrical spin Hall injected magnon current could also be controlled by the MJs, contributing to a magnon junction effect in the magnetoresistance (MR) signals. This work demonstrates the building block of magnonic devices, which sheds light on the future applications of magnon-based memory, logic and computing, etc

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/0ee76393b0704c3d54a175b1865b38f3.jpg)

Spin-Orbit Torques Dependence on the Metal Barrier Thickness in Metal/SrTiO3-based Two-Dimensional Electron Gases Studied by Spin-Torque Ferromagnetic Resonance

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