Current-induced magnetization switching in epitaxial L10-FePt/Cr heterostructures through orbital Hall effect.

The current-induced magnetization switching (CIMS) was successfully observed in epitaxial L1₀-FePt/Cr_xPt_1−x (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. With increasing Cr content, the critical switching current density (J_c) in FePt/Cr_xPt_1−x heterostructures exhibited a decreasing trend, where it was greatly reduced by 69% in FePt/Cr (3d) films compared to FePt/Pt (5d) films with strong spin–orbit coupling. Furthermore, the same switching polarities were observed for all FePt/Cr_xPt_1−x samples, indicating that the orbital Hall effect played a dominant role in CIMS for FePt/Cr films because of opposite spin Hall angles for Cr and Pt. Our results will put forward the applications of L1₀-FePt in collaboration with the orbital Hall effect from 3d metals in current-controlled magnetic random access memory and neuromorphic computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]