Interface transparency to orbital current

Igor Lyalin, Roland K. Kawakami

Published 2024-06-04Version 1

The transport of spin currents across interfaces is relatively well studied, while the transport properties of orbital currents are just starting to be examined. In Cr/Ni bilayers, the spin-orbit torque (SOT) due to the orbital current generated in the Cr layer is believed to dominate over torques of other origins. In this work, we study SOT in Cr/X/Ni trilayers, where X is an ultra-thin spacer of a different material. Using the SOT as a proxy for the orbital current transferred from the Cr to the Ni layer, we compare Cr/X/Ni results to Pt/X/Ni, the system in which spin current generated in the Pt layer plays a dominant role. We find that across 12 different spacers the apparent interface transparency to the orbital current is comparable or larger than to the spin current.