Swift heavy ion irradiation-induced enhancement of spin-orbit torque efficiency in Pt/Co/Ta trilayers

被引：1

作者：

Zhang, Jianrong ^{[1
]}

Li, Yuzhi ^{[1
]}

He, Xiaodong ^{[1
]}

Zhang, Qi ^{[1
]}

Yan, Ze ^{[1
]}

Chang, Yuhan ^{[1
]}

Cui, Baoshan ^{[1
]}

Zuo, Yalu ^{[1
]}

Sheng, Yan-bin ^{[2
,3
]}

Xi, Li ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Lanzhou Univ, Sch Phys Sci & Technol, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China

[2] Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Modern Phys, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China

[3] Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Sch Nucl Sci & Technol, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China

来源：

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS | 2024年 / 125卷 / 12期

基金：

中国国家自然科学基金; 国家重点研发计划;

关键词：

HALL;

D O I：

10.1063/5.0225985

中图分类号：

O59 [应用物理学];

学科分类号：

摘要：

Increasing the efficiency of spin-orbit torque (SOT) is of great interest in applications for magnetic random access memory and logic devices due to decreased energy consumption. Here, we present that the SOT efficiency of Pt/Co/Ta films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy can be improved by swift high-energy heavy Fe11+ ion irradiation, which is an effective method to alter crystallinity, interface roughness, and defects in ferromagnet/heavy metal heterostructures. Specifically, the Pt/Co/Ta films show an optimal SOT efficiency at ion fluence around 1.0 x 1013 ions/cm2 with the largest spin Hall angles reaching 0.59, which is the largest improvement of spin Hall angle by ion irradiation compared to previous studies using light ions. We demonstrate that the increase in SOT efficiency arises from structural changes in the Pt layer due to ion irradiation-induced damage effects at proper fluence, while the decrease in SOT efficiency is mainly attributed to the restoration of Pt crystallinity induced by beam-heating effects at high fluence. This work demonstrates that an appropriate ion irradiation process could improve the SOT efficiency and the spin Hall angle, thereby providing a way to develop future SOT-based spintronic devices.

引用

页数：6