We report the observation of the intrinsic damping-like spin-orbit torque (SOT) arising from the Berry curvature in metallic-magnet/CuOx heterostructures. We show that a robust damping-like SOT, an order of magnitude larger than a field-like SOT, is generated in the heterostructure despite the absence of the bulk spin-orbit effect in the CuOx layer. Furthermore, by tuning the interface oxidation level, we demonstrate that the field-like SOT changes drastically and even switches its sign, which originates from oxygen modulated spin-dependent disorder. These results provide an important information for fundamental understanding of the physics of the SOTs.
@article{arxiv.1802.01285,
title = {Intrinsic spin-orbit torque arising from Berry curvature in metallic-magnet/Cu-oxide interface},
author = {Tenghua Gao and Alireza Qaiumzadeh and Hongyu An and Akira Musha and Yuito Kageyama and Ji Shi and Kazuya Ando},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.01285},
year = {2018}
}