Strongly heat-assisted spin–orbit torque switching of a ferrimagnetic insulator

作者：Zheyu Ren, Kun Qian, Mohammed Aldosary, Yuting Liu, Shun Kong Cheung, Isaac Ng, Jing Shi, Qiming Shao · 发表于：APL Materials · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1063/5.0049103 · 被引用次数：28 · 研究领域：Magnetic properties of thin films、Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials、Advanced Memory and Neural Computing

Ferrimagnetic insulators promise low-power and high-speed spintronic applications, thanks to their insulating nature and fast dynamics near compensation points. In a ferrimagnetic insulator/heavy metal heterostructure, we investigate field- and current-induced magnetization switching at various temperatures and observe distinct magnetization switching behaviors owing to spin–orbit torque (SOT) and heating effect. We have realized SOT switching across the magnetization compensation temperature and discovered that the SOT switching is strongly heat-assisted: the temperature is always above the compensation temperature while the SOT switching happens in our case. Moreover, we show that the SOT efficiency is strongly magnetization-dependent by characterizing the current dependence of SOT efficiency and explaining the anomalous SOT switching back phenomena in the presence of a titled external field. Our results reveal the critical role of Joule heating on the dynamics of magnetic insulators and pave the way for the application of spintronic devices based on magnetic insulators.