Thickness-Dependent Orbital-to-Spin Torque Signatures in Cr/Gd/Co Thin Films
Abstract
We studied orbital-torque generation in Cr(10nm)/Gd(tGd)/Co(3nm)/TaOx and the inverted stack Co(3nm)/Gd(tGd)/Cr(10nm) with tGd from 0 to 5 nm by combining electrical harmonic Hall measurements with magnetometry. A detailed understanding of the magnetometric data is obtained by cross-sectional chemical composition mapping. The data show temperature-dependent magnetic compensation points, while elemental analysis provides evidence of pronounced intermixing, in particular of Gd and Co layers. From the harmonic Hall dataset we extract the damping-like (DL) and field-like (FL) torque efficiencies normalized to the applied electric field, ξDLE and ξFLE, and interpret their dependence on the Gd interlayer thickness using two different descriptions: (i) a naive-layer model and (ii) an alloy model that accounts for interfacial mixing. Notably, upon reversing the stack order, the FL contribution changes sign, whereas the DL contribution does not change sign within the harmonic Hall measurements.
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BibTeX
@misc{schneider2026thicknessdependent,
title = {{Thickness-Dependent Orbital-to-Spin Torque Signatures in Cr/Gd/Co Thin Films}},
author = {Tiago de Oliveira Schneider and Michel Heidkamp and Luana Caron and Inga Ennen and Matthias Opel and Alexey Arzumanov and Lambert Alff and Markus Meinert},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01302},
eprint = {2609.01302},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01302},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Thickness-Dependent Orbital-to-Spin Torque Signatures in Cr/Gd/Co Thin Films
AU - Tiago de Oliveira Schneider
AU - Michel Heidkamp
AU - Luana Caron
AU - Inga Ennen
AU - Matthias Opel
AU - Alexey Arzumanov
AU - Lambert Alff
AU - Markus Meinert
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01302
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01302
AB - We studied orbital-torque generation in Cr(10nm)/Gd(t_Gd)/Co(3nm)/TaO_x and the inverted stack Co(3nm)/Gd(t_Gd)/Cr(10nm) with t_Gd from 0 to 5 nm by combining electrical harmonic Hall measurements with magnetometry. A detailed understanding of the magnetometric data is obtained by cross-sectional chemical composition mapping. The data show temperature-dependent magnetic compensation points, while elemental analysis provides evidence of pronounced intermixing, in particular of Gd and Co layers. From the harmonic Hall dataset we extract the damping-like (DL) and field-like (FL) torque efficiencies normalized to the applied electric field, ξ_DL^E and ξ_FL^E, and interpret their dependence on the Gd interlayer thickness using two different descriptions: (i) a naive-layer model and (ii) an alloy model that accounts for interfacial mixing. Notably, upon reversing the stack order, the FL contribution changes sign, whereas the DL contribution does not change sign within the harmonic Hall measurements.
ER -