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    Vertical Soliton-Assisted Current Switching in Extremely Thick FeGd Ferrimagnets

    Teng Xu1,2,3,†,‡, Zhengde Xu4,†, Yiqing Dong1,2,5, Yang Cheng1,2, Ledong Wang1,2, Hongmei Feng1,2, Hao Bai1,2, Kun Xu6, Xinyu Shu1,2 et al.

    Pu Yu1,2, Heng-An Zhou7, Enlong Liu7, Shikun He7, Chuanying Xi3, Guoqiang Yu8, Xuepeng Qiu9, Se Kwon Kim10, Jing Zhu6,11, Zhifeng Zhu4,‡, and Wanjun Jiang1,2,§

    • 1State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
    • 2Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
    • 3Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Low-Energy Quantum Materials and Devices, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, HFIPS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
    • 4School of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
    • 5AVIC Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, Shenyang 110850, China
    • 6National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
    • 7Zhejiang Hikstor Technology Co. LTD., 1718 Chongwen Road, Hangzhou 311300, China
    • 8Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
    • 9Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
    • 10Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea
    • 11Ji Hua Laboratory, Foshan, Guangdong, China

    • †Contact author: txu@hmfl.ac.cn
    • ‡Contact author: zhuzhf@shanghaitech.edu.cn
    • §Contact author: jiang_lab@tsinghua.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126703 – Published 16 September, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/z89w-1vp9

    Abstract

    Current-induced spin-orbit torques (SOTs) can electrically switch magnetic films. The thickness of these films is usually limited to a few tenths of nanometers. Toward stable spintronic nanodevices, it is important to explore the upper thickness limit and to identify the associated SOT switching mechanism, if it is different from standard models. Here, we experimentally show that the SOT switching could occur in Pt(3  nm)/Fe0.80Gd0.20/Ta(3  nm) trilayers with a thickness of Fe0.80Gd0.20 ferrimagnetic films up to 200 nm, all at room temperature. The contributions from the Oersted field, bulk SOTs, and thermal activation induced by Joule heating are also discussed. Through performing atomistic spin simulations, we identify the critical role of nucleation and propagation of vertical magnetic solitons along the thickness direction, which could explain such unprecedented SOT switching behaviors in extremely thick ferrimagnets. The revelation of the vertical soliton-assisted SOT switching of the extremely thick ferrimagnets can be used for miniaturizing spintronic devices.

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