W thickness dependence of spin Hall effect for (W/Hf)-multilayer electrode/CoFeB/MgO systems with flat and highly (100) oriented MgO layer

Abstract

We investigated spin-Hall effect (SHE) and degree of MgO (100) orientation in artificially synthesized (W/Hf)-multilayer/CoFeB/MgO systems with various W thicknesses. We found that the artificially synthesized multilayer systems can enhance the spin-Hall effect and control the value of spin diffusion length. We observed a maximum magnitude in both spin-Hall angle and spin-Hall conductivity as a function of W thickness in W/Hf-multilayer systems, and found that the values of spin-Hall conductivity are larger than that for β-phase W. In addition, a more highly oriented MgO (100) texture on CoFeB is obtained for (W/Hf)-multilayer systems prepared under low-Ar-pressure condition, which would be suitable for preparation of magnetic tunnel junctions with high tunnel magnetoresistance properties on (W/Hf)-multilayer heavy metal electrode. These results suggest that the artificially synthesized multilayer system is one of the avenues for realizing spin devices using spin-orbit torque.