Thickness dependence of spin-orbit torques generated by WTe2

David MacNeill*, Gregory M. Stiehl, Marcos H. D. Guimaraes, Neal D. Reynolds, Robert A. Buhrman, Daniel C. Ralph

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

109 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study current-induced torques in WTe2/permalloy bilayers as a function of WTe2 thickness. We measure the torques using both second-harmonic Hall and spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance techniques for samples with WTe2 thicknesses that span from 16 nm down to a single monolayer. We confirm the existence of an out-of-plane antidamping torque, and we show directly that the sign of this torque component is reversed across a monolayer step in the WTe2. The magnitude of the out-of-plane antidamping torque depends only weakly on WTe2 thickness, such that even a single-monolayer WTe2 device provides a strong torque that is comparable to much thicker samples. In contrast, the out-of-plane fieldlike torque has a significant dependence on the WTe2 thickness. We demonstrate that this fieldlike component originates predominantly from the Oersted field, thereby correcting a previous inference drawn by our group based on a more limited set of samples.

Original languageEnglish
Article number054450
Number of pages8
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume96
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30-Aug-2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • LAYER
  • HALL
  • ELECTRONS
  • FIELD

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