Non-trivial charge-to-spin conversion in ferromagnetic metal/Cu/Al2O3 by orbital transport

Efficient spin/charge interconversion is desired to develop innovative spin-based devices. So far, the interconversion has been performed by using heavy atomic elements, strong spin-orbit interaction of which realizes the interconversion through the spin Hall effect and the Edelstein effect. We demonstrate highly efficient charge-to-spin conversion in a ferromagnetic metal/Cu/Al2O3 trilayers, which do not contain any heavy element. The resulting spin torque efficiency is higher than those of conventional spin Hall and Rashba systems consisting of heavy elements such as Pt and Bi. Our experimental results qualitatively deviate from typical behaviors arising from spin transport. However, they are surprisingly consistent with the behaviors arising from the orbital transport. Our results thus demonstrate a new direction for efficient charge-to-spin conversion through the orbital transport.