Moiré Engineering of Spin-Orbit Torque by Twisted WS 2 Homobilayers.
Xiaorong LiangPenghao LvYunhai XiongXi ChenDi FuYiping FengXusheng WangXiang ChenGuizhou XuErjun KanFeng XuHai-Bo ZengPublished in: Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) (2024)
Artificial moiré superlattices created by stacking 2D crystals have emerged as a powerful platform with unprecedented material-engineering capabilities. While moiré superlattices are reported to host a number of novel quantum states, their potential for spintronic applications remains largely unexplored. Here, the effective manipulation of spin-orbit torque (SOT) is demonstrated using moiré superlattices in ferromagnetic devices comprised of twisted WS 2 /WS 2 homobilayer (t-WS 2 ) and CoFe/Pt thin films by altering twisting angle (θ) and gate voltage. Notably, a substantial enhancement of up to 44.5% is observed in SOT conductivity at θ ≈ 8.3°. Furthermore, compared to the WS 2 monolayer and untwisted WS 2 /WS 2 bilayers, the moiré superlattices in t-WS 2 enable a greater gate-voltage tunability of SOT conductivity. These results are related to the generation of the interfacial moiré magnetic field by the real-space Berry phase in moiré superlattices, which modulates the absorption of the spin-Hall current arising from Pt through the magnetic proximity effect. This study highlights the moiré physics as a new building block for designing enhanced spintronic devices.