Ultrahigh efficient spin orbit torque magnetization switching in fully sputtered topological insulator and ferromagnet multilayers

Abstract

Spin orbit torque (SOT) magnetization switching of ferromagnets with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has a great potential for the next generation non-volatile magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM). It requires a high performance pure spin current source with a large spin Hall angle and high electrical conductivity, which can be fabricated by a mass production technique. In this work, we demonstrate ultrahigh efficient and robust SOT magnetization switching in fully sputtered BiSb topological insulator and perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pt multilayers. Despite fabricated by the magnetron sputtering instead of the laboratory molecular beam epitaxy, the topological insulator layer, BiSb, shows a large spin Hall angle of θSH = 10.7 and high electrical conductivity of σ = 1.5 × 105 Ω−1 m−1. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of BiSb topological insulator for implementation of ultralow power SOT-MRAM and other SOT-based spintronic devices.