Current-induced torques originating from earth-abundant 3d elements offer a promising avenue for low-cost and sustainable spintronic memory and logic applications. Recently, orbital currents -- transverse orbital angular momentum flow in response to an electric field -- have been in the spotlight since they allow current-induced torque generation from 3d transition metals. Here, we report a comprehensive study of the current-induced spin and orbital torques in Cu-based magnetic heterostructures. We show that high torque efficiencies can be achieved in engineered Ni80Fe20/Cu bilayers where Cu is naturally oxidized, exceeding the ones found in the archetypical Co/Pt. Furthermore, we demonstrate sign and amplitude control of the damping-like torque by manipulating the oxidation state of Cu via solid-state gating. Our findings provide insights into the interplay between charge, spin, and orbital transport in Cu-based heterostructures and open the door to the development of gate-tunable spin-orbitronic devices.
@article{arxiv.2501.09458,
title = {Tunable spin and orbital torques in Cu-based magnetic heterostructures},
author = {Silvia Damerio and Can O. Avci},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.09458},
year = {2025}
}