Kyoung‐Whan Kim

Recent experiments on ultrathin magnetic layers with broken inversion symmetry reported anomalous current-driven magnetization dynamics. We show that the spin-transfer torque can be significantly modified by Rashba spin-orbit coupling and the modified spin-transfer torque can explain the anomalous magnetization dynamics. This work will be valuable for the development of next generation spintronic devices based on ultrathin magnetic systems.

As nanomagnetic devices scale to smaller sizes, spin-orbit coupling due to the broken structural inversion symmetry at interfaces becomes increasingly important. Here, we study interfacial spin-orbit coupling effects in magnetic bilayers using a simple Rashba model. The spin-orbit coupling introduces chirality into the behavior of the electrons and through them into the energetics of the magnetization. In the derived form of the magnetization dynamics, all of the contributions that are linear in

Magnetization dynamics in a ferromagnet can induce a spin-dependent electric field through a spin motive force. Spin current generated by the spin-dependent electric field can in turn modify the magnetization dynamics through spin-transfer torque. While this feedback effect is usually weak and thus ignored, we predict that in Rashba spin-orbit coupling systems with a large Rashba parameter α(R), the coupling generates the spin-dependent electric field [±(α(R)m(e)/eħ)(z[over ^]×∂m/∂t)], which can

We use a perturbative approach to study the effects of interfacial spin-orbit coupling in magnetic multilayers by treating the two-dimensional Rashba model in a fully three-dimensional description of electron transport near an interface. This formalism provides a compact analytic expression for current-induced spin-orbit torques in terms of unperturbed scattering coefficients, allowing computation of spin-orbit torques for various contexts, by simply substituting scattering coefficients into the

We examine the current-induced dynamics of a skyrmion that is subject to both structural and bulk inversion asymmetry. There arises a hybrid type of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) which is in the form of a mixture of interfacial and bulk DMIs. Examples include crystals with symmetry classes ${\mathrm{C}}_{n}$ as well as magnetic multilayers composed of a ferromagnet with a noncentrosymmetric crystal and a nonmagnet with strong spin-orbit coupling. As a striking result, we find that, in

We generalize the spin drift-diffusion formalism by considering spin-orbit interaction of a ferromagnet, which generates transverse spin currents in the ferromagnet. We consider quantum-mechanical transport of transverse spins in a spin-orbit coupled ferromagnet and develop a generalized drift-diffusion equation and boundary condition. By combining them, we identify previously unrecognized spin transport phenomena in heterostructures including ferromagnets. As representative examples, we show se

We compute the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy within two-dimensional Rashba models. For a ferromagnetic free-electron Rashba model, the magnetic anisotropy is exactly zero regardless of the strength of the Rashba coupling, unless only the lowest band is occupied. For this latter case, the model predicts in-plane anisotropy. For a more realistic Rashba model with finite band width, the magnetic anisotropy evolves from in-plane to perpendicular and back to in-plane as bands are progressively

Abstract Spin torque is typically classified based on how the spin current is generated and injected into a magnet for manipulation. Spin-orbit torque arises from the spin-orbit interaction in a nearby normal metal, while spin-transfer torque results from exchange interactions in another ferromagnet. Recent studies have suggested that a ferromagnet itself can also generate a spin current through spin-orbit coupling, leading to the emergence of ferromagnet-induced spin-orbit torque as another cla

We theoretically analyze contributions from the Kondo effect to the spin polarization and spin diffusion length in all-metal nonlocal spin valves. Interdiffusion of ferromagnetic atoms into the normal metal layer creates a region in which Kondo physics plays a significant role, giving discrepancies between experiment and existing theory. We start from a simple model and construct a modified spin drift-diffusion equation which clearly demonstrates how the Kondo physics not only suppresses the ele

We derive an intrinsic contribution to the non-adiabatic spin torque for non-uniform magnetic textures. It differs from previously considered contributions in several ways and can be the dominant contribution in some models. It does not depend on the change in occupation of the electron states due to the current flow but rather is due to the perturbation of the electronic states when an electric field is applied. Therefore it should be viewed as electric-field-induced rather than current-induced

We examine a modified drift-diffusion formalism to describe spin transport near an ultrathin magnet whose thickness is similar to or less than the spin dephasing length. Most of the previous theories on spin torque assume the transverse component of a injected spin current dephases perfectly thus are fully absorbed into the ferromagnet. However, in the state-of-art multilayer systems under consideration of recent studies, the thicknesses of ferromagnets are on the order of or less than a nanomet

We demonstrate a unidirectional motion of a quasiparticle without explicit symmetry breaking along the space-time coordinate of the particle motion. This counterintuitive behavior originates from a combined action of two intrinsic asymmetries in the other two directions. We realize this idea with the magnon-driven motion of a magnetic domain wall in thin films with interfacial asymmetry. Contrary to previous studies, the domain wall moves along the same direction regardless of the magnon-flow di

In metallic ferromagnets, the interaction between local magnetic moments and conduction electrons renormalizes parameters of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, such as the gyromagnetic ratio and the Gilbert damping, and makes them dependent on the magnetic configurations. Although the effects of the renormalization for nonchiral ferromagnets are usually minor and hardly detectable, we show that the renormalization does play a crucial role for chiral magnets. Here the renormalization is chiral