Giant Spin Transfer Torque in Atomically Thin Magnetic Bilayers

Abstract

In cavity quantum electrodynamics, the multiple reflections of a photon between two mirrors defining a cavity is exploited to enhance the light-coupling of an intra-cavity atom. We show that this paradigm for enhancing the interaction of a flying particle with a localized object can be generalized to spintronics based on van der Waals 2D magnets. Upon tunneling through a magnetic bilayer, we find that the spin transfer torques per electron incidence can become orders of magnitude larger than hbar/2, made possible by electron's multi-reflection path through the ferromagnetic monolayers as an intermediate of their angular momentum transfer. Over a broad energy range around the tunneling resonances, the damping-like spin transfer torque per electron tunneling features a universal value of (hbar/2)tan (θ/2), depending only on the angle θ between the magnetizations. These findings expand the scope of magnetization manipulations for high-performance and high-density storage based on van der Waals magnets.