Modulation of heavy metal/ferromagnetic metal interface for high-performance spintronic devices

Spintronic devices such as magnetic tunnel junction and skyrmions have attracted considerable attention due to features such as nonvolatility, high scalability, low power, and high speed. Here we demonstrate that the heavy metal (HM)/ferromagnetic metal (FM) interface is playing an essential role in spintronic devices and the properties can be significantly improved by proper modulation of this interface.[1-5] Firstly, we investigated the effect of HM/FM interface on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of several structures.[4-5] Then experimental and theoretical investigations of the HM/FM interface for high tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio were presented.[2] Next, spin-orbit torque (SOT) switching were discussed with emphasis on low-power and field-free SOT switching.[3] Subsequently, the investigations of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in different HM/FM systems were presented. This work provides guidelines for high-performance spintronic devices and an outlook for potential applications.
[1] S. Peng et al., Adv. Electron. Mater. 5, 1900134 (2019).
[2] M. Wang et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 671 (2018).
[3] M. Wang et al., Nat. Electron. 1, 582 (2018).
[4] S. Peng et al., IEEE Trans. Magn. 54, 1300705 (2018).
[5] S. Peng et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 072403 (2017).