Harnessing orbital Hall effect in spin-orbit torque MRAM

Perpendicular magnetization on OHE layers for high-density integration Achieving PMA in combination with OHE layers is a key requirement for the architecture of highly dense and efficient SOT-MRAM devices. Therefore, multilayers of [Co(0.2)/Ni(0.6)] n were deposited onto selected OHE layers, such as Ru(2), Nb(2), and Cr(2), where n denotes the number of bilayer repetitions and the thickness values in nanometers are indicated in parentheses. A 1.5 nm thin Pt layer was inserted as an interlayer between the [Co/Ni] n (with n = 3 yielding optimal PMA) and the OHE layers to facilitate the induction of PMA, aligning with the requirements for SOT-MRAM devices, and serves as an efficient orbital-to-spin conversion layer due to its high SOC15 (see Supplementary Material (SM) section I, and the Methods section). This is crucial for the application of torque and the mechanisms of magnetization switching in these experiments. Enhanced torque due to orbital Hall effect To measure torques, we emp ... Read full article.