Two-terminal current-in-plane giant magnetoresistance devices driven by the spin–orbit torque

Abstract

Spin valve effect driven by current-induced spin–orbit torques can help to realize electrically controllable and miniaturized two terminal spintronic devices. Here, we show that in a perpendicularly magnetized Fe1−x1Tbx1/Pt/Fe1−x2Tbx2 spin-valve multilayer, spin currents from dual surfaces of the inserted Pt layer can be used to generate spin torques that can separately switch the adjacent ferrimagnetic Fe1−xTbx layers. In a two-terminal device, we further show that the accompanied parallel and anti-parallel magnetization configurations between the two Fe1−xTbx layers can lead to the observation of the current-in-plane giant magnetoresistance (CIP-GMR). Our results demonstrate that the current-induced spin–orbit torques can be implemented into two-terminal spin-torque devices, which can be electrically read out by the CIP-GMR. The present study could be important for designing miniaturized spintronic devices.