Current-induced torques in textured Rashba ferromagnets

E. van der Bijl, R.A. Duine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In systems with small spin-orbit coupling, current-induced torques on the magnetization require inhomogeneous magnetization textures. For large spin-orbit coupling, such torques exist even without gradients in the magnetization direction. Here, we consider current-induced torques in ferromagnetic metals with both Rashba spin-orbit coupling and inhomogeneous magnetization. We first phenomenologically construct all torques that are allowed by the symmetries of the system, to first order in magnetization-direction gradients and electric field. Second, we use a Boltzmann approach to calculate the spin torques that arise to second order in the spin-orbit coupling. We apply our results to current-driven domain walls and find that the domain-wall mobility is strongly affected by torques that result from the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and inhomogeneity of the magnetization texture.
Original languageEnglish
Article number094406
Number of pages9
JournalPhysical review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics
Volume86
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

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