Strong bulk spin–orbit torques quantified in the van der Waals ferromagnet Fe<sub>3</sub>GeTe<sub>2</sub>
Franziska Martin, Kyujoon Lee, Maurice Schmitt, Anna Liedtke, Aga Shahee, Haakon T. Simensen, Tanja Scholz, Tom G. Saunderson, Dongwook Go, Martin Gradhand, Yuriy Mokrousov, Thibaud Denneulin, András Kovács, Bettina V. Lotsch, Arne Brataas, Mathias Kläui
Abstract
The recent emergence of magnetic van der Waals materials allows for the investigation of current-induced magnetisation manipulation in two-dimensional materials. Uniquely, Fe3GeTe2 has a crystalline structure that allows for the presence of bulk spin–orbit torques (SOTs) that we quantify in a Fe3GeTe2 flake. From the symmetry of the measured torques, we identify current induced effective fields using harmonic analysis and find dominant bulk SOTs arising from the symmetry in the crystal structure. Our results show that Fe3GeTe2 can exhibit bulk SOTs in addition to the conventional interfacial SOTs enabling magnetisation manipulation even in thick flakes without the need for complex multilayer engineering.