Spin and Orbital Torques towards Efficient Spin-Orbitronic Devices
Shilei Ding (Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland)

Electronic devices based on charge motion have been well-studied and widely used in technological devices. However, the electrons can carry not only charges but also spin and orbital angular momentum. Nonequilibrium spin and orbital currents mediate the transfer of the angular momentum to the neighboring magnetic materials enabling the development of efficient spin orbitronic devices. Decoupling these currents from a flow of electronic charges opens opportunities for the electrical control of the magnetization. In this talk, I will first present the efficient spin torque in the magnetic insulators, including current-driving domain wall motion and the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction. In the second part of the talk, I will present the orbital torque and orbital Rashba-Edelstein magnetoresistance in the light metal system. The orbital-to-spin conversion plays a crucial role in the orbital torque, and the conversion layer can be ferromagnetic metal itself, 3d, 4f, and 5d non-magnetic metals. Our work indicates the efficient current-induced torque in the insulating system with a lower joule heating, and our results on orbital torques show that the magnitude of the orbital torque can be larger than the spin torque. The results further provide insight into the efficient current-induced torques with orbital current from low-cost, environmentally friendly light metals.
Biography
Shilei Ding received his B.S. in Physics from Peking University, China in 2016, and he received his Ph.D in Condensed Matter Physics from the School of Physics, Peking University (supervisor: Prof. Jinbo Yang). From 2017-2018 and 2019-2020, he was a guest Ph.D. student in the Lab of Prof. Mathias Kläui at Mainz University, Germany. He is now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Lab of Prof. Pietro Gambardella at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His research focuses on nonequilibrium spin and orbital current towards spin orbitronic devices, and he has published more than 30 papers in leading journals, including Physical Review Letters, Nano Letters, Advanced Materials, etc.