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A spin–orbit torque device for sensing three-dimensional magnetic fields

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 179–184 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Magnetic field sensors are important in a variety of applications, including transport and medical devices. However, existing solid-state approaches for the detection of three-dimensional magnetic fields require multiple sensors, making the set-ups bulky. Here, we show that a single spin–orbit torque device composed of a Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructure can detect a vector magnetic field. In-plane and out-of-plane field components lead to the displacement of domain walls in the CoFeB layer, modulating the associated anomalous Hall effect resistance. Modulation of the anomalous Hall effect resistance varies linearly with the x, y and z components of a vector magnetic field. Our compact three-dimensional magnetic field sensor exhibits good linearity within a certain range (3.2%, 2.7% and 4.3% for the x, y and z directions, respectively) and high sensitivity (205, 282 and 1,845 V A−1 T−1 for the x, y and z directions, respectively). The sensor also exhibits low 1/f noise.

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Fig. 1: Three-dimensional magnetic field sensing based on a Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructure.
Fig. 2: Measured R–H curves under ±6.8 MA cm−2.
Fig. 3: Net resistance contributed by Hx, Hy and Hz.
Fig. 4: Noise spectral density.

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Source data are provided with this paper. Any additional data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grants 62074063, 61821003, 61904051, 61904060, 51671098 and 61674062), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2020AAA0109000), the Research Project of Wuhan Science and Technology Bureau (grant no. 2019010701011394) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (HUST: 2018KFYXKJC019). We acknowledge assistance from G. Wu and L. Zhan in providing the equipment for noise measurements.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Ruofan Li, Shuai Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Optical and Electronic Information and Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Ruofan Li, Shuai Zhang, Shijiang Luo, Zhe Guo, Jun Ouyang, Xiaofei Yang, Jeongmin Hong & Long You

  2. Key Laboratory for Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of Ministry of Education and School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Yan Xu & Li Xi

  3. Faculty of Physics and Electronic Science, Hubei University, Wuhan, China

    Min Song

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Qiming Zou

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Contributions

L.Y. conceived the ideas and designed the experiments. S.Z. fabricated the samples and implemented the experimental set-up. R.L. performed the experimental measurements and the simulations by OOMMF and COMSOL. R.L., S.Z., Z.G., J.O. and L.Y. analysed the results. Y.X. and L.X. provided the MOKE equipment and S.Z. performed the MOKE measurements. M.S., J.H., Q.Z. and X.Y. provided the theoretical support. R.L., S.Z., S.L., Z.G. and L.Y. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the data and contributed to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Long You.

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Peer review information Nature Electronics thanks Coriolan Tiusan and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Li, R., Zhang, S., Luo, S. et al. A spin–orbit torque device for sensing three-dimensional magnetic fields. Nat Electron 4, 179–184 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00542-8

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