Spin-orbit current-induced torques in (Ga,Mn)As

Electrical control of magnetic domains has the potential to overcome key challenges to the development of new non-volatile and down-scalable logic and memory devices. We study the spin-orbit torque induced by an unpolarized electric current in the dilute ferromagnetic semiconductor, (Ga,Mn)As. The current-induced torque (CIT) is modeled as the interaction between the uniform magnetization and an effective magnetic field representing the non-equilibrium carrier spin-polarization. We calculate the current-induced field (CIF) using the Kubo linear-response formalism for a broad range of material parameters. We find that the CIF is composed of a dominant term due to the inverse spin galvanic effect and a small component which is dependent on the relative orientation of the current, magnetization, and crystal axes. In conjunction with experimental studies, we investigate the magnetization dynamics using the phenomenological Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation. The study of (Ga,Mn)As opens the door to a comprehensive theory of CITs in uniform magnetic semiconductors.