Flexible control of magnetization switching by electrical manners is crucial for applications of spin-orbitronics. Besides of a switching current that is parallel to an applied field, a bias current that is normal to the switching current is introduced to tune the magnitude of effective damping-like and field-like torques and further to electrically control magnetization switching. Symmetrical and asymmetrical control over the critical switching current by the bias current with opposite polarities is both realized in Pt/Co/MgO and α-Ta/CoFeB/MgO systems, respectively. This research not only identifies the influences of field-like and damping-like torques on switching process but also demonstrates an electrical method to control it.
@article{arxiv.1605.05569,
title = {Electrical control over perpendicular magnetization switching driven by spin-orbit torques},
author = {X. Zhang and C. H. Wan and Z. H. Yuan and Q. T. Zhang and H. Wu and L. Huang and W. J. Kong and C. Fang and U. Khan and X. F. Han},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.05569},
year = {2016}
}