Search

Perpendicularly magnetized structures that are switchable using a spin current under field-free conditions can potentially be applied in spin–orbit torque magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM). Several structures have been developed; however, new structures with a simple stack structure and MRAM compatibility are urgently needed. Herein, a typical structure in a perpendicular spin-transfer torque MRAM, the Pt/Co multilayer and its synthetic antiferromagnetic counterpart with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, was observed to possess an intrinsic interlayer chiral interaction between neighboring magnetic layers, namely, the interlayer Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) effect. Furthermore, using a current parallel to the eigenvector of the interlayer DMI, we switched the perpendicular magnetization of both structures without a magnetic field, owing to the additional symmetry breaking introduced by the interlayer DMI. This SOT switching scheme realized in the Pt/Co multilayer and its synthetic antiferromagnet structure may open a new avenue toward practical perpendicular SOT-MRAM and other SOT devices.