Fig. 1: Schematic illustrations of the spin and orbital currents in HM/FM multilayers.
From: Harnessing synergy of spin and orbital currents in heavy metal/ferromagnet multilayers
a, b Spin (a) and orbital (b) currents transport and conversion in HM(LM)/FM. Blue straight and red curved arrows indicate spin and orbital angular momentums, respectively. Yellow curved arrows represent the flow of angular momentum. Black arrows denote the magnetic moment, and the small arrows near magnetic moment indicate spin (blue) and orbital (red) torques. For the spin current (a), it generates spin torque at HM/FM interface and undergoes dephasing. For the orbital current (b), it is converted into orbital torque by FM with weak SOC. c Spin and orbital transports in our HM/FM/FMSOC structure, and their contribution to SOT. The behavior of spin current is like in a. However, orbital current will pass through the FM without SOC and be converted into orbital torque after entering the FM layer with SOC.
