posted on 2022-01-31, 18:48authored byGuanzhong Wu, Dongying Wang, Nishchhal Verma, Rahul Rao, Yang Cheng, Side Guo, Guixin Cao, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Chun Ning Lau, Fengyuan Yang, Mohit Randeria, Marc Bockrath, P. Chris Hammel
Engineering magnetic anisotropy in
a ferro- or ferrimagnetic (FM)
thin film is crucial in a spintronic device. One way to modify the
magnetic anisotropy is through the surface of the FM thin film. Here,
we report the emergence of a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA)
induced by interfacial interactions in a heterostructure comprised
of a garnet ferrimagnet, Y3Fe5O12 (YIG), and a low-symmetry, high spin-orbit coupling (SOC) transition
metal dichalcogenide, WTe2. At the same time, we also observed
an enhancement in Gilbert damping in the WTe2-covered YIG
area. Both the magnitude of interface-induced PMA and the Gilbert
damping enhancement have no observable WTe2 thickness dependence
down to a single quadruple layer, indicating that the interfacial
interaction plays a critical role. The ability of WTe2 to
enhance the PMA in FM thin film, combined with its previously reported
capability to generate out-of-plane damping like spin torque, makes
it desirable for magnetic memory applications.