Harnessing the Giant Orbital Hall effect for mutual synchronization in nano-oscillators

Since its initial prediction, the spin Hall effect (SHE) has played a major role in spintronics thanks to its intriguing physics and tremendous potential for applications via the spin currents generated from charge currents. In the last few years, another phenomenon, the so-called orbital Hall effect (OHE), has also emerged.

The OHE is the generation of pure orbital currents from the charge current, ushering in the era of orbitronics.

The magnitude of the OHE is predicted to be 1-2 orders higher than the SHE, and therefore, it is imperative to harness it for the development of spintronic devices, e.g., to use it to excite auto-oscillations at microwave frequencies.

Therefore, the Giant Orbital Hall Effect (GOHE) project aims at using the OHE instead of the SHE in spintronic nano-oscillators, to create a paradigm shift in the designing of next-generation orbitronics-based devices.

Here, I propose a systematic study of different combinations of non-magnetic (NM)/heavy metal (HM)/ferromagnetic (FM) based heterostructures to harness the OHE and utilize it for the mutual synchronization of the world’s first orbital Hall nano-oscillators (OHNOs), to serve as a bridge to the already known capacity of spin Hall nano-oscillators (SHNOs) by the host group.

Moreover, in this project, I aim to reliably elucidate the explicit contribution of bulk and interfacial OHE, in analogy with its counterpart, SHE.

I will also study and unravel the fundamental mechanism OHE by disentangling the intrinsic and extrinsic contribution of scattering from impurities in host, and develop its background in line with SHE.