Anatomy of spin-transfer torque

By Mark D. Stiles, A. Zangwill. 2002

625 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spin-transfer torques occur in magnetic heterostructures because the transverse component of a spin current that flows from a nonmagnet into a ferromagnet is absorbed at the interface. We demonstrate this fact explicitly using free-electron models and first-principles electronic structure calculations for real material interfaces. Three distinct processes contribute to the absorption: (1) spin-dependent reflection and transmission, (2) rotation of reflected and transmitted spins, and (3) spatial precession of spins in the ferromagnet. When summed over all Fermi surface electrons, these processes reduce the transverse component of the transmitted and reflected spin currents to nearly zero for most systems of interest. Therefore, to a good approximation, the torque on the magnetization is proportional to the transverse piece of the incoming spin current.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/032a918ed8361cab7a6b1a416e0424b341772f3c

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Condensed Matter Physics

Citations in the corpus

Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications (2004, neutral): “…known as spin-transfer torque, has since been extensively studied both theoretically and experimentally (Bazaliy et al., 1998; Myers et al., 1999; Stiles and Zangwill, 2002; Sun, 2000; Tsoi et al., 1998; Waintal et al., 2000) and current-induced magnetization reversal was demonstrated at room…”
Vertical-current-induced domain-wall motion in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions with low current densities (2011, background): “is that the out-of-plane field-like torque TOOP can reach large amplitudes, up to 30% of the classical in-plane torque TIP [22, 23], in contrast to metallic spin-valve structures, in which the out-of-plane torque is only a few % of the in-plane torque [24, 25].”
Spin-Torque and Spin-Hall Nano-Oscillators (2015, background): “While the perpendicular contribution is small for all-metallic multilayers [45]–[47], it can be substantial in devices with tunneling barriers [46], [48]–[50].”
Spin-polarised currents and magnetic domain walls (2005, neutral): “detail by Stiles and collaborators [474, 475].”
Nonlocal magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic heterostructures (2004, background): “For example, Slonczewski’s magnetization torque (Slonczewski, 1996) is equivalent to absorption of an incident spin current with a polarization component perpendicular to the magnetization (Brataas et al., 2000; Stiles and Zangwill, 2002; Waintal et al., 2000).”