Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore.
Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Ministry of Education), Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
Science. 2019 Nov 29;366(6469):1125-1128. doi: 10.1126/science.aav8076.
Widespread applications of magnetic devices require an efficient means to manipulate the local magnetization. One mechanism is the electrical spin-transfer torque associated with electron-mediated spin currents; however, this suffers from substantial energy dissipation caused by Joule heating. We experimentally demonstrated an alternative approach based on magnon currents and achieved magnon-torque-induced magnetization switching in BiSe/antiferromagnetic insulator NiO/ferromagnet devices at room temperature. The magnon currents carry spin angular momentum efficiently without involving moving electrons through a 25-nanometer-thick NiO layer. The magnon torque is sufficient to control the magnetization, which is comparable with previously observed electrical spin torque ratios. This research, which is relevant to the energy-efficient control of spintronic devices, will invigorate magnon-based memory and logic devices.
广泛应用的磁性器件需要一种有效的方法来控制局部磁化。一种机制是与电子介导的自旋电流相关的电自旋转移力矩；然而，这会因焦耳加热而导致大量能量耗散。我们通过实验证实了一种基于磁子流的替代方法，并在室温下在 BiSe/反铁磁绝缘体 NiO/铁磁体器件中实现了磁子力矩诱导的磁化反转。磁子流通过 25 纳米厚的 NiO 层有效地传递自旋角动量，而不涉及移动电子。磁子力矩足以控制磁化，这与之前观察到的电自旋扭矩比相当。这项与节能控制自旋电子器件相关的研究将激发基于磁子的存储和逻辑器件。
