Journal
NATURE PHYSICS
Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages 300-+Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS3933
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [DMR-1406333]
- Army Research Office [W911NF-15-1-0447]
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship [DGE-1144153]
- Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [NWO 680-50-1311]
- Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science
- NSF [ECCS-1542081, DMR-1539918]
- Cornell Center for Materials Research Shared Facilities
- NSF MRSEC Program [DMR-1120296]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Materials Research [1539918] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1406333] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Recent discoveries regarding current-induced spin-orbit torques produced by heavy-metal/ferromagnet and topological-insulator/ferromagnet bilayers provide the potential for dramatically improved efficiency in the manipulation of magnetic devices. However, in experiments performed to date, spin-orbit torques have an important limitation-the component of torque that can compensate magnetic damping is required by symmetry to lie within the device plane. This means that spin-orbit torques can drive the most current-efficient type of magnetic reversal (antidamping switching) only for magnetic devices with in-plane anisotropy, not the devices with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy that are needed for high-density applications. Here we show experimentally that this state of affairs is not fundamental, but rather one can change the allowed symmetries of spin-orbit torques in spin-source/ferromagnet bilayer devices by using a spin-source material with low crystalline symmetry. We use WTe2, a transition-metal dichalcogenide whose surface crystal structure has only one mirror plane and no two-fold rotational invariance. Consistent with these symmetries, we generate an out-of-plane antidamping torque when current is applied along a low-symmetry axis of WTe2/Permalloy bilayers, but not when current is applied along a high-symmetry axis. Controlling spin-orbit torques by crystal symmetries in multilayer samples provides a new strategy for optimizing future magnetic technologies.
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