Orbital torque switching in perpendicularly magnetized materials

The orbital Hall effect in light materials has attracted considerable attention for developing orbitronic devices. Here we investigate the orbital torque efficiency and demonstrate the switching of the perpendicularly magnetized materials through the orbital Hall material, i.e., Zr. The orbital torque efficiency of approximately 0.78 is achieved in the Zr orbital Hall material with the perpendicularly magnetized [Co/Pt]₃ sample, which significantly surpasses that of the perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB/Gd/CoFeB sample (approximately 0.04). Such a notable difference is attributed to the different spin-orbit correlation strength between the [Co/Pt]₃ sample and the CoFeB/Gd/CoFeB sample, confirmed through theoretical calculations. Furthermore, the full magnetization switching of the [Co/Pt]₃ samples with a switching current density of approximately 2.6×10⁶A/cm² has been realized through Zr, which even outperforms that of the W spin Hall material. Our finding provides a guideline to understand orbital torque efficiency and paves the way for developing energy-efficient orbitronic devices.