Supercurrent-Induced Spin-Orbit Torques

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the supercurrent-induced magnetization dynamics of a two-dimensional lattice of ferromagnetically ordered spins placed on a conventional superconductor with broken spatial inversion symmetry and strong spin-orbit coupling. We develop a phenomenological description of the coupled dynamics of the superconducting condensate and the spin system, and demonstrate that supercurrents produce a reactive spin-orbit torque on the magnetization. By performing a microscopic self-consistent calculation, we show that the spin-orbit torque originates from a spin-polarization of the Cooper pairs due to current-induced spin-triplet correlations. Interestingly, we find that there exists an intrinsic limitation for the maximum achievable spin-orbit torque, which is determined by the coupling strength between the condensate and the spin system. In proximitized hole-doped semiconductors, the maximum achievable spin-orbit torque field is estimated to be on the order of $0.16$ mT, which is comparable to the critical field for current-induced magnetization switching in ferromagnetic semiconductors.

Final version accepted by Physical Review B

References in corpus (10)

• Observation of Majorana Fermions in Ferromagnetic Atomic Chains on a Superconductor
• Spin Transfer Torques
• Non-Abelian Topological Orders and Majorana Fermions in Spin-Singlet Superconductors
• Theory of 2D superconductor with broken inversion symmetry
• Magnetic moment manipulation by a Josephson current
• Magnonic Charge Pumping via Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Spin Supercurrent, Magnetization Dynamics, and Phi-State in Spin-Textured Josephson Junctions
• Theory of Nonequilibrium Spin Transport and Spin Transfer Torque in Superconducting-Ferromagnetic Nanostructures
• Robustness of Majorana Modes and Minigaps in a Spin-Orbit-Coupled Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructure
• Magnetic impurities in a superconductor: Effect of domain walls and interference

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Supercurrent-induced Skyrmion dynamics and Tunable Weyl points in Chiral Magnet with Superconductivity