Highly Efficient Room‐Temperature Spin‐Orbit‐Torque Switching in a Van der Waals Heterostructure of Topological Insulator and Ferromagnet

Abstract

Abstract All‐Van der Waals (vdW)‐material‐based heterostructures with atomically sharp interfaces offer a versatile platform for high‐performing spintronic functionalities at room temperature. One of the key components is vdW topological insulators (TIs), which can produce a strong spin‐orbit‐torque (SOT) through the spin‐momentum locking of their topological surface state (TSS). However, the relatively low conductance of the TSS introduces a current leakage problem through the bulk states of the TI or the adjacent ferromagnetic metal layers, reducing the interfacial charge‐to‐spin conversion efficiency (qICS). Here, a vdW heterostructure is used consisting of atomically‐thin layers of a bulk‐insulating TI Sn‐doped Bi1.1Sb0.9Te2S1 and a room‐temperature ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2, to enhance the relative current ratio on the TSS up to ≈20%. The resulting qICS reaches ≈1.65 nm−1 and the critical current density Jc ≈0.9 × 106 Acm−2 at 300 K, surpassing the performance of TI‐based and heavy‐metal‐based SOT devices. These findings demonstrate that an all‐vdW heterostructure with thickness optimization offers a promising platform for efficient current‐controlled magnetization switching at room temperature.

Keywords

• 2D ferromagnet
• charge‐to‐spin conversion
• spin‐orbit‐torque
• topological insulator
• Van der Waals heterostructure