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Peer-reviewedCC BY中国科学通报：英文版

Giant orbital torque-driven picosecond switching in magnetic tunnel junctions

  • Yuxuan Yao1
  • Chen Xiao1
  • Xiaobai Ning2
  • Wenlong Cai3
  • Xianzeng Guo1
  • Zongxia Guo4
  • Kailin Yang1
  • Danrong Xiong5
  • Zhengjie Yan1
  • Dehang Zhu1,6
  • Shiyang Lu1
  • Hongchao Zhang5
14 more authors
  • Siyuan Cheng1
  • Yizhen Shao1
  • Renyou Xu1
  • Dinghao Ma1
  • Chao Wang3
  • Zhaohao Wang3
  • Boyu Zhang1
  • Xiangyu Zheng1
  • Daoqian Zhu1,6
  • Kaihua Cao1
  • Hongxi Liu7
  • Aurélien Manchon8
  • ALBERT FERT4
  • Weisheng S. Zhao9
9 affiliations
  1. 1Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
  2. 2Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; State Key Laboratory of Spintronics, Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou 311115, China; CINaM, Aix-Marseille University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marseille 13284, France
  3. 3Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; State Key Laboratory of Spintronics, Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou 311115, China
  4. 4Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; Laboratoire Albert Fert, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Thales, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau 91767, France
  5. 5Truth Memory Corporation, Beijing 100088, China
  6. 6Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; State Key Laboratory of Spintronics, Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou 311115, China. Electronic address: [email protected]
  7. 7Truth Memory Corporation, Beijing 100088, China. Electronic address: [email protected]
  8. 8CINaM, Aix-Marseille University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marseille 13284, France
  9. 9Fert Beijing Institute, School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; State Key Laboratory of Spintronics, Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou 311115, China. Electronic address: [email protected]
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Abstract

Orbital effects and orbital torque (OT) were recently discovered as a novel pathway for driving the magnetic moment. However, the development of OT-based magnetic memories suffers from low orbital-to-spin conversion efficiency and incompatibility with magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Here we demonstrate OT-MTJ devices based on Ru/W bilayer, achieving an effective spin-orbit Hall conductivity of −12,600 ħ /2 e Ω −1 cm −1 . The giant orbital torque originates from the strong orbital effects in the Ru layer and an orbital-to-spin conversion efficiency exceeding 90% in the α -W layer because of the large orbit-spin diffusivity. By harnessing the giant orbital torque, we experimentally achieve switching of OT-MTJs by short pulses down to 28.7 ps, with picosecond-switching dynamics captured. Compared with β -W-based spin-orbit torque-MTJs, the OT-MTJs offer a five to eight-fold reduction in driving voltages, and a highly uniform resistance distribution of < 1 Ω across write channels. Our work bridges the critical gap between orbital effects and magnetic memory applications.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{yao2026giant,
  title = {{Giant orbital torque-driven picosecond switching in magnetic tunnel junctions}},
  author = {Yuxuan Yao and Chen Xiao and Xiaobai Ning and Wenlong Cai and Xianzeng Guo and Zongxia Guo and Kailin Yang and Danrong Xiong and Zhengjie Yan and Dehang Zhu and Shiyang Lu and Hongchao Zhang and Siyuan Cheng and Yizhen Shao and Renyou Xu and Dinghao Ma and Chao Wang and Zhaohao Wang and Boyu Zhang and Xiangyu Zheng and Daoqian Zhu and Kaihua Cao and Hongxi Liu and Aurélien Manchon and ALBERT FERT and Weisheng S. Zhao},
  journal = {中国科学通报：英文版},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.1016/j.scib.2026.07.019},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2026.07.019},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Giant orbital torque-driven picosecond switching in magnetic tunnel junctions
AU  - Yuxuan Yao
AU  - Chen Xiao
AU  - Xiaobai Ning
AU  - Wenlong Cai
AU  - Xianzeng Guo
AU  - Zongxia Guo
AU  - Kailin Yang
AU  - Danrong Xiong
AU  - Zhengjie Yan
AU  - Dehang Zhu
AU  - Shiyang Lu
AU  - Hongchao Zhang
AU  - Siyuan Cheng
AU  - Yizhen Shao
AU  - Renyou Xu
AU  - Dinghao Ma
AU  - Chao Wang
AU  - Zhaohao Wang
AU  - Boyu Zhang
AU  - Xiangyu Zheng
AU  - Daoqian Zhu
AU  - Kaihua Cao
AU  - Hongxi Liu
AU  - Aurélien Manchon
AU  - ALBERT FERT
AU  - Weisheng S. Zhao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/09
JO  - 中国科学通报：英文版
DO  - 10.1016/j.scib.2026.07.019
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2026.07.019
AB  - Orbital effects and orbital torque (OT) were recently discovered as a novel pathway for driving the magnetic moment. However, the development of OT-based magnetic memories suffers from low orbital-to-spin conversion efficiency and incompatibility with magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Here we demonstrate OT-MTJ devices based on Ru/W bilayer, achieving an effective spin-orbit Hall conductivity of −12,600 ħ /2 e Ω −1 cm −1 . The giant orbital torque originates from the strong orbital effects in the Ru layer and an orbital-to-spin conversion efficiency exceeding 90% in the α -W layer because of the large orbit-spin diffusivity. By harnessing the giant orbital torque, we experimentally achieve switching of OT-MTJs by short pulses down to 28.7 ps, with picosecond-switching dynamics captured. Compared with β -W-based spin-orbit torque-MTJs, the OT-MTJs offer a five to eight-fold reduction in driving voltages, and a highly uniform resistance distribution of < 1 Ω across write channels. Our work bridges the critical gap between orbital effects and magnetic memory applications.
SN  - 2095-9273
SN  - 2095-9281
ER  -