Room temperature energy-efficient spin-orbit torque switching in two-dimensional van der Waals Fe3GeTe2 induced by topological insulators

Haiyu Wang; Hao Wu; Jie Zhang; Yingjie Liu; Dongdong Chen; Chandan Pandey; Jialiang Yin; Dahai Wei; Na Lei; Shuyuan Shi; Haichang Lu; Peng Li; Albert Fert; Kang L Wang; Tianxiao Nie; Weisheng Zhao

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40714-y

Room temperature energy-efficient spin-orbit torque switching in two-dimensional van der Waals Fe₃GeTe₂ induced by topological insulators

Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 24;14(1):5173. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40714-y.

Authors

Haiyu Wang^#^{1

2}, Hao Wu^#³, Jie Zhang^#¹, Yingjie Liu¹, Dongdong Chen⁴, Chandan Pandey¹, Jialiang Yin¹, Dahai Wei⁴, Na Lei¹, Shuyuan Shi¹, Haichang Lu¹, Peng Li⁵, Albert Fert^{1

6}, Kang L Wang³, Tianxiao Nie⁷, Weisheng Zhao⁸

Affiliations

¹ Fert Beijing Institute, MIIT Key Laboratory of Spintronics, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
² Shenyuan Honors College, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Superlattices and Microstructures, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 912, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA.
⁶ Unité Mixte de Physique, CNRS, Thales, Univ. Paris-Sud, University of Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau, France.
⁷ Fert Beijing Institute, MIIT Key Laboratory of Spintronics, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. nietianxiao@buaa.edu.cn.
⁸ Fert Beijing Institute, MIIT Key Laboratory of Spintronics, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. wszhao@buaa.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic materials with unique magnetic properties have great potential for next-generation spintronic devices with high flexibility, easy controllability, and high heretointegrability. However, realizing magnetic switching with low power consumption at room temperature is challenging. Here, we demonstrate the room-temperature spin-orbit torque (SOT) driven magnetization switching in an all-van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure using an optimized epitaxial growth approach. The topological insulator Bi₂Te₃ not only raises the Curie temperature of Fe₃GeTe₂ (FGT) through interfacial exchange coupling but also works as a spin current source allowing the FGT to switch at a low current density of ~2.2×10⁶ A/cm². The SOT efficiency is ~2.69, measured at room temperature. The temperature and thickness-dependent SOT efficiency prove that the larger SOT in our system mainly originates from the nontrivial topological origin of the heterostructure. Our experiments enable an all-vdW SOT structure and provides a solid foundation for the implementation of room-temperature all-vdW spintronic devices in the future.

Grants and funding

62274009,61774013/National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)