Berry curvature-induced intrinsic spin Hall effect in light-element-based CrN system for magnetization switching

Abstract

The current-induced spin-orbit torque-based devices for magnetization switching are commonly relied on the 4d and 5d heavy metals owing to their strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) to produce large spin current via spin Hall effect (SHE). Here we present the sizable SHE in CrN, a light element-based system and demonstrate the current-induced magnetization switching in the adjacent ferromagnetic layer [Co(0.35nm)/Pt(0.3nm)]3, which exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We found the switching current density of 2.6 MA/cm2. The first principles calculation gives the spin Hall conductivity (SHC) to be 120 (hcross/e) S/cm due to intrinsic Berry curvature arising from SOC induced band splitting near Fermi-energy. The theoretically calculated intrinsic SHC is close to the experimental SHC extracted from second harmonic Hall measurement. We estimated spin Hall angle to be 0.09, demonstrating efficient charge-to-spin conversion in CrN system.