Efficient charge to spin conversion in iridium oxide thin films

Abstract

Many 5d transition metal oxides have a unique electronic structure, where the density of states near the Fermi level is dominated by only 5d electrons with strong spin–orbit coupling. IrO2, a Dirac nodal line semi-metal, is the simplest of these oxides. The presence of 5d electrons and gap opening of Dirac nodal lines via strong spin–orbit coupling allows for the hybridization of the 5d electrons of the oxide with the itinerant d electrons of a ferromagnet, while simultaneously increasing the intrinsic spin Hall effect. We report large charge-to-spin conversion in thin films of this material using spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance experiments. By independently performing line shape analysis and linewidth modulation experiments, we conclusively determine the spin Hall angle of optimized IrO2 films to be ∼8 times larger than that of Pt.