Characterizing the spin orbit torque field-like term in in-plane magnetic system using transverse field

• Main Authors: Luo, Feilong, Goolaup, Sarjoosing, Li, Sihua, Lim, Gerard Joseph, Tan, Funan, Engel, Christian, Zhang, Senfu, Ma, Fusheng, Zhou, Tiejun, Lew, Wen Siang
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Current density; Magnetic field measurements
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83952; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42896
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this work, we present an efficient method for characterizing the spin orbit torque field-like term in an in-plane magnetized system using the harmonic measurement technique. This method does not require a priori knowledge of the planar and anomalous hall resistances and is insensitive to non-uniformity in magnetization, as opposed to the conventional harmonic technique. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the field-like term in the Ta/Co/Pt film stack with in-plane magnetic anisotropy can be obtained by an in-plane transverse field sweep as expected, and magnetization non-uniformity is prevented by the application of fixed magnetic field. The experimental results are in agreement with the analytical calculations.