Recently, the current induced magnetization switching by spin-orbit torque (SOT) using the basic spin Hall effect is identified as a vital ingredient for non-volatile spintronic memory and logic devices.
In some Weyl semimetals, some experimental and theoretical results have shown that they could have a Spin Hall angle 10 times higher than Pt. This can make SOT based memory devices more efficient, so Wely semimetals are appealing for magnetic memory technology. However, it should be noted that the memory device prefers perpendicular magnetization to increase storage density. To switch perpendicular magnetization, the "in-plane" SOT generated by the Spin Hall effect is not efficient.
Materials with low crystal symmetry such as MoTe2 and WTe2 have been shown to be able to generate out-of-plane antidamping SOT (efficient to switch perpendicular magnetization). They are also Wely semimetals, and they may be great candidates for SOT based memory devices.
The discovery of topological Weyl semimetals in 2017 has revealed opportunities to realize several extraordinary physical phenomena in condensed matter physics. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have demonstrated the direct electrical detection of a large spin Hall effect in this topological quantum material. Weyl semimetal takes advantage of its strong spin-orbit coupling and novel topological spin-polarized electronic states in its band structure. These experimental findings can pave the way for the utilization of spin-orbit induced phenomena in developing next-generation of faster and energy-efficient information technology and have been published in the scientific journal Physical Review Research.
As our society is becoming more integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT), the demand for low-power, nanoscale, and high-performance electronic devices have been increasing. Spintronic devices are promising for the next generation of information technology in order to lower the power consumption while increasing the performance and non-volatile properties. Recently, the current induced magnetization switching by spin-orbit torque (SOT) using the basic spin Hall effect is identified as a vital ingredient for non-volatile spintronic memory and logic devices. The SOT mechanism is specifically useful, as a spin current can be generated by just passing a charge current in heavy metals due to the spin Hall effect, without the use of an external magnetic field. However, there are several challenges related to the limited switching speed and high-power consumption in these devices.
The advantages of topological semimetals 1T' WTe2 is that it has a multitude of interesting properties, such as it is a van der Waals layered materials, a Weyl semimetal in bulk with a chiral anomalous (negative magnetoresistance) behavior, presence of quantum spin Hall states in monolayers, and novel spin-texture of surface and bulk electronic state providing a large current-induced spin polarization.
Such developments have a great potential for realizing ultra-fast and low-power electronics for the next generation of memory, logic, communication, and quantum technologies
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