Electric field manipulation of spin chirality and skyrmion dynamic.

The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is an antisymmetric exchange interaction that stabilizes spin chirality. One scientific and technological challenge is understanding and controlling the interaction between spin chirality and electric field. In this study, we investigate an unconventional electric field effect on interfacial DMI, skyrmion helicity, and skyrmion dynamics in a system with broken inversion symmetry. We design heterostructures with a 3d-5d atomic orbital interface to demonstrate the gate bias control of the DMI energy and thus transform the DMI between opposite chiralities. Furthermore, we use this voltage-controlled DMI (VCDMI) to manipulate the skyrmion spin texture. As a result, a type of intermediate skyrmion with a unique helicity is created, and its motion can be controlled and made to go straight. Our work shows the effective control of spin chirality, skyrmion helicity, and skyrmion dynamics by VCDMI. It promotes the emerging field of voltage-controlled chiral interactions and voltage-controlled skyrmionics.

Strongly Surface State Carrier-Dependent Spin-Orbit Torque in Magnetic Topological Insulators.

The topological surface states (TSS) in topological insulators (TIs) can exert strong spin-orbit torque (SOT) on adjacent magnetization, offering great potential in implementing energy-efficient magnetic memory devices. However, there are large discrepancies among the reported spin Hall angle values in TIs, and its temperature dependence still remains elusive. Here, the spin Hall angle in a modulation-doped Cr-Bix Sb2- x Te3 (Cr-BST) film is quantitatively determined via both transport and optic approaches, where consistent results are obtained. A large spin Hall angle of ≈90 in the modulation-doped Cr-BST film is demonstrated at 2.5 K, and the spin Hall angle drastically decreases to 0.3-0.5 as the temperature increases. Moreover, by tuning the top TSS carrier concentration, a competition between the top and bottom TSS in contributing to SOT is observed. The above phenomena can account for the large discrepancies among the previously reported spin Hall angle values and reveal the unique role of TSS in generating SOT.

Room-Temperature Spin-Orbit Torque from Topological Surface States.

Spin-momentum locked surface states in topological insulators (TIs) provide a promising route for achieving high spin-orbit torque (SOT) efficiency beyond the bulk spin-orbit coupling in heavy metals (HMs). However, in previous works, there is a huge discrepancy among the quantitative SOTs from TIs in various systems determined by different methods. Here, we systematically study the SOT in the TI(HM)/Ti/CoFeB/MgO systems by the same method, and make a conclusive assessment of SOT efficiency for TIs and HMs. Our results demonstrate that TIs show more than one order of magnitude higher SOT efficiency than HMs even at room temperature, at the same time the switching current density as low as 5.2×10^{5} A cm^{-2} is achieved with (Bi_{1-x}Sb_{x})_{2}Te_{3}. Furthermore, we investigate the relationship between SOT efficiency and the position of Fermi level in (Bi_{1-x}Sb_{x})_{2}Te_{3}, where the SOT efficiency is significantly enhanced near the Dirac point, with the most insulating bulk and conducting surface states, indicating the dominating SOT contribution from topological surface states. This work unambiguously demonstrates the ultrahigh SOT efficiency from topological surface states.

Spin-Orbit Torque Switching of a Nearly Compensated Ferrimagnet by Topological Surface States.

Utilizing spin-orbit torque (SOT) to switch a magnetic moment provides a promising route for low-power-dissipation spintronic devices. Here, the SOT switching of a nearly compensated ferrimagnet Gdx (FeCo)1- x by the topological insulator [Bi2 Se3 and (BiSb)2 Te3 ] is investigated at room temperature. The switching current density of (BiSb)2 Te3 (1.20 × 105 A cm-2 ) is more than one order of magnitude smaller than that in conventional heavy-metal-based structures, which indicates the ultrahigh efficiency of charge-spin conversion (>1) in topological surface states. By tuning the net magnetic moment of Gdx (FeCo)1- x via changing the composition, the SOT efficiency has a significant enhancement (6.5 times) near the magnetic compensation point, and at the same time the switching speed can be as fast as several picoseconds. Combining the topological surface states and the nearly compensated ferrimagnets provides a promising route for practical energy-efficient and high-speed spintronic devices.