The current-induced spin-orbit torque-based devices for magnetization switching 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 ${\left[\mathrm{Co}\right(0.35\mathrm{nm}\left)\text{/}\mathrm{Pt}\right(0.3\mathrm{nm}\left)\right]}_3$, which exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We found the switching current density of $2.6\mathrm{MA}\text{/}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$. The first principles calculation gives the spin Hall conductivity (SHC) $\sim 120\left(\frac{\hslash }{e}\right)\mathrm{S}\text{/}\mathrm{cm}$ due to intrinsic spin 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 (${\theta }_{SH}$) $\sim 0.09$, demonstrating efficient charge-to-spin conversion in CrN system.

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• Berry curvature
• Magnetization switching
• Spin Hall effect
• Spin-orbit torque