@article{7312d074b09e4cb082fb3bf28d36459c,
title = "In-plane current-driven spin-orbit torque switching in perpendicularly magnetized films with enhanced thermal tolerance",
abstract = "We study spin-orbit-torque (SOT)-driven magnetization switching in perpendicularly magnetized Ta/Mo/Co40Fe40B20 (CoFeB)/MgO films. The thermal tolerance of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is enhanced, and the films sustain the PMA at annealing temperatures of up to 430 °C, due to the ultra-thin Mo layer inserted between the Ta and CoFeB layers. More importantly, the Mo insertion layer also allows for the transmission of the spin current generated in the Ta layer due to spin Hall effect, which generates a damping-like SOT and is able to switch the perpendicular magnetization. When the Ta layer is replaced by a Pt layer, i.e.; in a Pt/Mo/CoFeB/MgO multilayer, the direction of the SOT-induced damping-like effective field becomes opposite because of the opposite sign of spin Hall angle in Pt, which indicates that the SOT-driven switching is dominated by the spin current generated in the Ta or Pt layer rather than the Mo layer. Quantitative characterization through harmonic measurements reveals that the large SOT effective field is preserved for high annealing temperatures. This work provides a route to applying SOT in devices requiring high temperature processing steps during the back-end-of-line processes.",
author = "Di Wu and Guoqiang Yu and Qiming Shao and Xiang Li and Hao Wu and Wong, {Kin L.} and Zongzhi Zhang and Xiufeng Han and {Khalili Amiri}, Pedram and Wang, {Kang L.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported, in part, by C-SPIN, one of the six SRC STARnet Centers, sponsored by MARCO and DARPA. This work was also partially supported by the National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS) and, in part, by the FAME Center, one of six centers of the Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research network (STARnet), a Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) program sponsored by the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). We would like to acknowledge the collaboration of this research with the King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) via The Center of Excellence for Green Nanotechnologies (CEGN). This work was partially supported by the Energy Frontier Research Center for Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems (SHINES). H.W. and X.H. acknowledge the support by the Project of Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) (Grant No. 2014AA032904), the MOST National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Projects [Grant No. 2011YQ120053], and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [Grant No. 11434014 & 51229101]. D. Wu and Z. Z. Zhang thank the support of China Scholarship Council (CSC), the 973 Program (2014CB921104), and the NSFC grant (11474067).",
year = "2016",
month = may,
day = "23",
doi = "10.1063/1.4952771",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "108",
journal = "Applied Physics Letters",
issn = "0003-6951",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Publising LLC",
number = "21",
}