Field-free spin Hall effect driven magnetization switching in Pd/Co/IrMn exchange coupling system

All electrical manipulation of magnetization is crucial and of great important for spintronics devices for the sake of high speed, reliable operation, and low power consumption. Recently, widespread interests have been aroused to manipulate perpendicular magnetization of a ferromagnetic layer using spin-orbit torque (SOT) without field. We report that a commonly used antiferromagnetic material IrMn can be a promising candidate as a functional layer to realize field-free magnetization switching driven by SOT in which IrMn is employed to act as both the source of effective exchange bias field and SOT source. The critical switching current density within our study is Jc = 2.2 × 107 A/cm2, which is the same magnitude as similar materials such as PtMn. A series of measurements based on anomalous Hall effect was systematically implemented to determine the magnetization switching mechanism. This study offers a possible route for IrMn application in similar structures.

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