Rashba-Edelstein Effect in the h-BN Van Der Waals Interface for Magnetization Switching

Van der Waals materials are attracting great attention in the field of spintronics due to their novel physical properties. For example, they are utilized as spin-current generating materials in spin-orbit torque (SOT) devices, which offers an electrical way to control the magnetic state and is promising for future low-power electronics. However, SOTs have mostly been demonstrated in vdW materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Here, the observation of a current-induced SOT in the h-BN/SrRuO₃ bilayer structure is reported, where the vdW material (h-BN) is an insulator with negligible SOC. Importantly, this SOT is strong enough to induce the switching of the perpendicular magnetization in SrRuO₃ . First-principles calculations suggest a giant Rashba effect at the interface between vdW material and SrRuO₃ (110)_pc thin film, which leads to the observed SOT based on a simplified tight-binding model. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the current-induced magnetization switching can be modulated by the electric field. This study paves the way for exploring the current-induced SOT and magnetization switching by integrating vdW materials with ferromagnets.