Spin-orbit torque in completely compensated synthetic antiferromagnet

Abstract

Synthetic antiferromagnets (SAF) have been proposed to replace ferromagnets in magnetic memory devices to reduce the stray field, increase the storage density and improve the thermal stability. Here we investigate the spin-orbit torque in a perpendicularly magnetized Pt/[Co/Pd]/Ru/[Co/Pd] SAF structure, which exhibits completely compensated magnetization and an exchange coupling field up to 2100 Oe. The magnetizations of two Co/Pd layers can be switched between two antiparallel states simultaneously by spin-orbit torque. The magnetization switching can be read out due to much stronger spin-orbit coupling at bottom Pt/[Co/Pd] interface compared to its upper counterpart without Pt. Both experimental and theoretical analyses unravel that the torque efficiency of antiferromagnetic coupled stacks is significantly higher than the ferromagnetic counterpart, making the critical switching current of SAF comparable to the conventional single ferromagnet. Besides adding an important dimension to spin-orbit torque, the efficient switching of completely compensated SAF might advance magnetic memory devices with high density, high speed and low power consumption.

arXiv comment25 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. B

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Strong damping-like spin-orbit torque and tunable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction generated by low-resistivity Pd${}_{1-x}$Pt${}_x$ alloys
• Highly efficient spin orbit torque in Pt/Co/Ir multilayers with antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling
• Emerging spintronics phenomena and applications
• Parity-controlled spin-wave excitations in synthetic antiferromagnets
• Switching of biaxial synthetic antiferromagnets: a micromagentic study
• Structural, magnetostatic and magnetodynamic studies of Co/Mo-based uncompensated synthetic antiferromagnets