Room-Temperature van der Waals Ferromagnet Switching by Spin-Orbit Torques.

Abstract

The emerging wide varieties of the van der Waals (vdW) magnets with atomically thin and smooth interfaces hold great promise for next-generation spintronic devices. However, due to the lower Curie temperature of the vdW ferromagnets than room temperature, electrically manipulating its magnetization at room temperature has not been realized. In this work, it is demonstrated that the perpendicular magnetization of the vdW ferromagnet Fe3 GaTe2 can be effectively switched at room temperature in the Fe3 GaTe2 /Pt bilayer by spin-orbit torques (SOTs) with a relatively low current density of 1.3 × 107 A cm-2 . Moreover, the high SOT efficiency of ξDL ≈ 0.28 is quantitatively determined by harmonic measurements, which is higher than those in Pt-based heavy metal/conventional ferromagnet devices. The findings of room-temperature vdW ferromagnet switching by SOTs provide a significant basis for the development of vdW-ferromagnet-based spintronic applications.