The enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy(PMA)is critical for the continuous growth of magnetic memory density.Material systems that possess high interfacial PMA typically involve strong spin-orbit coupling...The enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy(PMA)is critical for the continuous growth of magnetic memory density.Material systems that possess high interfacial PMA typically involve strong spin-orbit coupling(SOC)or transition metal/oxide interfaces.In contrast,the role of 3d light metals in enhancing the interfacial PMA has been less investigated.This study demonstrated that the insertion of a few atomic Cr layers into Pt/Co/Pt/Ta heterostructures with Cr between the 1 atomic Pt layer and the 3 nm Ta overlayer enhanced the effective PMA energy(K_(eff))by a factor of 4.First-principles calculations revealed that the underlying mechanism originated from Cr-Pt d-orbital hybridization,leading to a corresponding orbital redistribution and significantly increasing the magnetic anisotropy energy.The progressive reduction in the spin-orbit torque(SOT)efficiency with increasing Cr thickness might stem from the enhanced orbital Rashba–Edelstein effect at the Pt/Cr interface.Furthermore,the wedging of a few atomic Cr layers caused the robust field-free SOT switching of perpendicular magnetization,which was due to the lateral PMA gradients enabled by the strong dependence of the PMA on the Cr thickness.The results provide a method for interfacial PMA enhancement by d-orbital hybridization of 3d–5d electrons and an alternative to field-free SOT switching towards low-power and high-density memory applications.展开更多
基金supported by the “Pioneer” and “Leading Goose” R&D Program of Zhejiang Province (Grant No.2022C01053)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.62293493)the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province,China (Grant No.LQ21A050001)。
文摘The enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy(PMA)is critical for the continuous growth of magnetic memory density.Material systems that possess high interfacial PMA typically involve strong spin-orbit coupling(SOC)or transition metal/oxide interfaces.In contrast,the role of 3d light metals in enhancing the interfacial PMA has been less investigated.This study demonstrated that the insertion of a few atomic Cr layers into Pt/Co/Pt/Ta heterostructures with Cr between the 1 atomic Pt layer and the 3 nm Ta overlayer enhanced the effective PMA energy(K_(eff))by a factor of 4.First-principles calculations revealed that the underlying mechanism originated from Cr-Pt d-orbital hybridization,leading to a corresponding orbital redistribution and significantly increasing the magnetic anisotropy energy.The progressive reduction in the spin-orbit torque(SOT)efficiency with increasing Cr thickness might stem from the enhanced orbital Rashba–Edelstein effect at the Pt/Cr interface.Furthermore,the wedging of a few atomic Cr layers caused the robust field-free SOT switching of perpendicular magnetization,which was due to the lateral PMA gradients enabled by the strong dependence of the PMA on the Cr thickness.The results provide a method for interfacial PMA enhancement by d-orbital hybridization of 3d–5d electrons and an alternative to field-free SOT switching towards low-power and high-density memory applications.
