Abstract

Magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is an efficient approach to probe surface magnetization in thin film samples. Here we present a wide-field MOKE technique that adopts a Köhler illumination scheme to characterize the current-induced damping-like spin-orbit torque (DL-SOT) in micron-sized and unpatterned magnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Through a current-induced hysteresis loop shift analysis, we quantify the DL-SOT efficiency of a Ta-based heterostructure with bar-shaped geometry, Hall-cross geometry, and unpatterned geometry to be |ξDL| ≈ 0.08. The proposed wide-field MOKE approach therefore provides an instant and direct characterization of DL-SOT, without the need of any further interpretation on electrical signals.

Details

Title
Spin-orbit torque magnetometry by wide-field magneto-optical Kerr effect
Author
Tsung-Yu Tsai 1 ; Tian-Yue, Chen 1 ; Chun-Ting, Wu 2 ; Chan, Hsin-I 1 ; Chi-Feng Pai 1 

 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 
 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 
Pages
1-8
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Apr 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2021753854
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.