Affiliation:
1. Department of Materials, ETH Zurich , CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract
Light transition metals have recently emerged as a sustainable material class for efficient spin–charge interconversion. We report measurements of current-induced spin–orbit torques generated by Ni1−xCux alloys in perpendicularly magnetized ferrimagnetic Gd/Fe multilayers. We show that the spin–orbit torque efficiency of Ni1−xCux increases with the Ni/Cu atomic ratio, reaching values comparable to those of Pt for Ni55Cu45. Furthermore, we demonstrate magnetization switching of a 20-nm-thick Gd/Fe multilayer with a threshold current that decreases with increasing Ni concentration, similar to the spin–orbit torque efficiency. Our findings show that Ni1−xCux−based magnetic heterostructures allow for efficient control of the magnetization by electric currents.
Funder
Swiss National Science Foundation
ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
Subject
Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)