Large damping-like spin–orbit torque and perpendicular magnetization switching in sputtered WTex films

Abstract

We report on the study of charge-spin conversion in sputter-deposited WTex films using harmonic Hall measurements. Strong damping-like (DL) spin–orbit torque (SOT) is observed in WTex thin films with the largest SOT efficiency of 0.67 × 105 Ω−1 m−1 at a WTex thickness of 5 nm, which quickly decreases to around zero as the thickness increases to 10 nm. In comparison, the field-like SOT is around one order smaller than the DL SOT. Making use of the large DL SOT, we realize efficient current-induced perpendicular magnetization switching in WTex/Ti/CoFeB multilayers. Our findings suggest the great potential of sputter-deposited WTex in spintronics applications.