Electrical control of magnetism by electric field and current-induced torques

Abstract

While early magnetic memory designs relied on magnetization switching by locally generated magnetic fields, key insights in condensed matter physics later suggested the possibility to do it electrically. In the 1990s, Slonczewzki and Berger formulated the concept of current-induced spin torques in magnetic multilayers through which a spin-polarized current may switch the magnetization of a ferromagnet. This discovery drove the development of spin-transfer-torque magnetic random-access memories (STT-MRAMs). More recent research unveiled spin-orbit-torques (SOTs) and will lead to a new generation of devices including SOT-MRAMs. Parallel to these advances, multiferroics and their magnetoelectric coupling experienced a renaissance, leading to novel device concepts for information and communication technology such as the MESO transistor. The story of the electrical control of magnetization is that of a dance between fundamental research (in spintronics, condensed matter physics, and materials science) and technology (MRAMs, MESO, microwave emitters, spin-diodes, skyrmion-based devices, components for neuromorphics, etc). This pas de deux led to major breakthroughs over the last decades (pure spin currents, magnetic skyrmions, spin-charge interconversion, etc). As a result, this field has propelled MRAMs into consumer electronics products but also fueled discoveries in adjacent research areas such as ferroelectrics or magnonics. Here, we cover recent advances in the control of magnetism by electric fields and by current-induced torques. We first review fundamental concepts in these two directions, then discuss their combination, and finally present various families of devices harnessing the electrical control of magnetic properties for various application fields. We conclude by giving perspectives in terms of both emerging fundamental physics concepts and new directions in materials science.

Final version accepted for publication in Reviews of Modern Physics

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• Non-linear Transport in Non-centrosymmetric Systems: From Fundamentals to Applications
• Recent Advances in Unconventional Ferroelectrics and Multiferroics
• Electromagnetic Proximity Effect: Superconducting Magnonics and Beyond
• Intrinsic Dynamic Generation of Spin Polarization by Time-Varying Electric Field
• Tuning magnetic exchange interactions in 2D magnets: the case of CrGeX${}_3$ (X = Se, Te) and Janus Cr${}_2$Ge${}_2$(Se,Te)${}_3$ monolayers
• Antiferromagnetic nanoscale bit arrays of magnetoelectric Cr${}_2$O${}_3$ thin films
• Symmetry-driven Intrinsic Nonlinear Pure Spin Hall Effect
• Prediction of Room Temperature Electric Field Reversal of Magnetization in the Family of $A_4{B}_3{\mathrm{O}}_9$ Layered Oxides
• Magnetoelectric torque in polar magnetic bilayers
• Giant non-reciprocal band structure effect in a multiferroic material
• Charge to spin conversion in atomically thin bismuth
• Giant orbital magnetoresistance in the antiferromagnet CoO driven by dynamic orbital angular momentum interaction
• Probing quantum geometric nonlinear magnetization via second-harmonic magneto-optical Kerr effect
• Electrically switchable non-relativistic Zeeman spin splittings in collinear antiferromagnets
• Gate-tunable charge-spin interconversion in graphene/heavy-metal heterostructures
• Electric Current Control of Helimagnetic Chirality from a Multidomain State in the Helimagnet MnAu${}_2$
• Spontaneous nonreciprocal transport in a gate-tunable ferromagnetic Rashba 2-dimensional electron gas
• Tailoring non-collinear magnetism and 3d $-$ 4f exchange interactions in RVO${}_3$ epitaxial thin films