The orbital Hall effect describes the generation of the orbital current flowing in a perpendicular direction to an external electric field, analogous to the spin Hall effect. As the orbital current carries the angular momentum as the spin current does, injection of the orbital current into a ferromagnet can result in torque on the magnetization, which provides a way to detect the orbital Hall effect. With this motivation, we examine the current-induced spin-orbit torques in various ferromagnet/heavy metal bilayers by theory and experiment. Analysis of the magnetic torque reveals the presence of the contribution from the orbital Hall effect in the heavy metal, which competes with the contribution from the spin Hall effect. In particular, we find that the net torque in Ni/Ta bilayers is opposite in sign to the spin Hall theory prediction but instead consistent with the orbital Hall theory, which unambiguously confirms the orbital torque generated by the orbital Hall effect. Our finding opens a possibility of utilizing the orbital current for spintronic device applications, and it will invigorate researches on spin-orbit-coupled phenomena based on orbital engineering.

The spin Hall effect describes an electric-field-induced generation of spin currents through spin-orbit coupling. Since the spin-orbit coupling alone cannot generate the angular momentum, there must be a more fundamental process of the spin Hall effect. Theories suggested that an electric-field-induced generation of orbital currents, called orbital Hall effect, is the fundamental process, and spin currents are subsequently converted from orbital currents. Despite its fundamental importance, the orbital Hall effect has not been confirmed experimentally. Motivated by a recent theoretical proposal of torque generation by orbital angular momentum injection, we examine the current-induced torque experimentally in various ferromagnet/heavy metal bilayers. We find that the net torque in Ni/Ta bilayers is opposite in sign to the spin Hall theory prediction but instead consistent with the orbital Hall theory, which confirms the orbital torque generated by the orbital Hall effect. It will invigorate researches on spin-orbit-coupled phenomena based on orbital engineering.

Bottom-up block copolymer (BCP) lithography mediated by self-assembly of polystyrene (PS)/poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) is widely used as an alternative patterning method for various deep nanoscale devices, such as optical devices and transistors, replacing conventional top-down photolithography. However, the nanoscale BCP mask features formed on the substrates after direct self-assembly of BCP tend to be easily damaged during exposure to the following plasma processing. In this study, silicon masked with a nanoscale BCP mask (PS) was etched by irradiating with a Cl2/Ar neutral beam in addition to a Cl2/Ar ion beam, and the effect of a Cl2/Ar neutral beam instead of a Cl2/Ar ion beam on damage to the PS mask and the silicon etch characteristics of nanodevices was investigated. The results show that the use of a neutral beam instead of an ion beam decreased degradation of the BCP mask during etching; therefore, a more anisotropic silicon etch profile in addition to improved etch selectivity of silicon compared to the BCP mask was observed. Moreover, by using the neutral beam, the sidewall roughness and sidewall angle also improved due to the decreased surface charge and reduced damage to the nanoscale PS mask resulting from use of a highly directional radical beam instead of a conventional ion-based beam.

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