Interfacial Orbital Rashba Edelstein Effect Identified in CoO/Cu/Pt Trilayers
Abstract
We investigate the generation of orbital angular momentum currents at engineered Cu-oxide interfaces using CoO/Cu/Pt thin-film trilayers. Angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements on samples with varying Cu interlayer thickness reveal systematic changes in both longitudinal and transverse resistance components, including a sign inversion of the signal. By systematically varying the Cu interlayer thicknesses, we disentangle the spin and orbital contributions to the magnetoresistive response. Our results show that large orbital currents originate from the interfacial orbital Rashba-Edelstein effect due to the presence of the Cu-O bonds at the CoO/Cu interface. Unlike previously studied CoO/Cu bilayers that rely on uncontrolled natural oxidation, our trilayer geometry enables reproducible and stable orbital-current generation at ambient conditions. Our results identify Cu-oxide interfaces as efficient sources of orbital angular momentum and clarify the microscopic mechanism underlying orbital current generation. Consequently, this work establishes a well-defined materials platform for all-orbitronic devices that does not require relativistic spin-orbit coupling or orbital-spin interconversion processes.
Related
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- Linear and nonlinear Edelstein effects in Rashba superconductors
- Tuning La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 magnetic anisotropy via interfacial coupling in homometallic trilayers
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BibTeX
@misc{schmitt2026interfacial,
title = {{Interfacial Orbital Rashba Edelstein Effect Identified in CoO/Cu/Pt Trilayers}},
author = {C. Schmitt and S. Krishnia and E. E. Galíndez-Ruales and H. Meer and T. Kikkawa and T. Denneulin and A. Kovács and O. Kuschel and R. E. Dunin-Borkowski and E. Saitoh and T. Kuschel and Y. Mokrousov and M. Kläui},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.34292},
eprint = {2610.34292},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34292},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Interfacial Orbital Rashba Edelstein Effect Identified in CoO/Cu/Pt Trilayers
AU - C. Schmitt
AU - S. Krishnia
AU - E. E. Galíndez-Ruales
AU - H. Meer
AU - T. Kikkawa
AU - T. Denneulin
AU - A. Kovács
AU - O. Kuschel
AU - R. E. Dunin-Borkowski
AU - E. Saitoh
AU - T. Kuschel
AU - Y. Mokrousov
AU - M. Kläui
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.34292
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34292
AB - We investigate the generation of orbital angular momentum currents at engineered Cu-oxide interfaces using CoO/Cu/Pt thin-film trilayers. Angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements on samples with varying Cu interlayer thickness reveal systematic changes in both longitudinal and transverse resistance components, including a sign inversion of the signal. By systematically varying the Cu interlayer thicknesses, we disentangle the spin and orbital contributions to the magnetoresistive response. Our results show that large orbital currents originate from the interfacial orbital Rashba-Edelstein effect due to the presence of the Cu-O bonds at the CoO/Cu interface. Unlike previously studied CoO/Cu bilayers that rely on uncontrolled natural oxidation, our trilayer geometry enables reproducible and stable orbital-current generation at ambient conditions. Our results identify Cu-oxide interfaces as efficient sources of orbital angular momentum and clarify the microscopic mechanism underlying orbital current generation. Consequently, this work establishes a well-defined materials platform for all-orbitronic devices that does not require relativistic spin-orbit coupling or orbital-spin interconversion processes.
ER -