Nanomaterials (Oct 2021)

Magnon Torque Transferred into a Magnetic Insulator through an Antiferromagnetic Insulator

  • Zhiren Chen,
  • Zehan Chen,
  • Xiaotian Zhao,
  • Baoshan Cui,
  • Hongnan Zheng,
  • Lin Liu,
  • Wei Jia,
  • Tianhui Li,
  • Zhixiang Ye,
  • Mingxia Qiu,
  • Ning Wang,
  • Lei Ma,
  • Hongyu An

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11112766
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 11
p. 2766

Abstract

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Electrical spin-orbit torque (SOT) in magnetic insulators (MI) has been intensively studied due to its advantages in spin-orbitronic devices with ultralow energy consumption. However, the magnon torque in the MIs, which has the potential to further lower the energy consumption, still remains elusive. In this work, we demonstrate the efficient magnon torque transferred into an MI through an antiferromagnetic insulator. By fabricating a Pt/NiO/Tm3Fe5O12 heterostructure with different NiO thicknesses, we have systematically investigated the evolution of the transferred magnon torque. We show that the magnon torque efficiency transferred through the NiO into the MI can retain a high value (∼50%), which is comparable to the previous report for the magnon torque transferred into the metallic magnet. Our study manifests the feasibility of realizing the pure magnon-based spin-orbitronic devices with ultralow energy consumption and high efficiency.

Keywords