Recent demonstrations of magnetization switching induced by in-plane current in heavy metal/ferromagnetic heterostructures (HMFHs) have drawn great attention to spin torques arising from large spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Given the intrinsic strong SOC, topological insulators (TIs) are expected to be promising candidates for exploring spin-orbit torque (SOT)-related physics. Here we demonstrate experimentally the magnetization switching through giant SOT induced by an in-plane current in a chromium-doped TI bilayer heterostructure. The critical current density required for switching is below 8.9 × 10(4) A cm(-2) at 1.9 K. Moreover, the SOT is calibrated by measuring the effective spin-orbit field using second-harmonic methods. The effective field to current ratio and the spin-Hall angle tangent are almost three orders of magnitude larger than those reported for HMFHs. The giant SOT and efficient current-induced magnetization switching exhibited by the bilayer heterostructure may lead to innovative spintronics applications such as ultralow power dissipation memory and logic devices.

A propagating Majorana mode Although Majorana fermions remain elusive as elementary particles, their solid-state analogs have been observed in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor nanowires. In a nanowire setting, the Majorana states are localized at the ends of the wire. He et al. built a two-dimensional heterostructure in which a one-dimensional Majorana mode is predicted to run along the sample edge (see the Perspective by Pribiag). The heterostructure consisted of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI) bar contacted by a superconductor. The authors used an external magnetic field as a “knob” to tune into a regime where a Majorana mode was propagating along the edge of the QAHI bar covered by the superconductor. A signature of this propagation—half-quantized conductance—was then observed in transport experiments. Science , this issue p. 294 ; see also p. 252

We investigate the quantum anomalous Hall Effect (QAHE) and related chiral transport in the millimetersize (Cr 0.12 Bi 0.26 Sb 0.62 ) 2 Te 3 films. With high sample quality and robust magnetism at low temperatures, the quantized Hall conductance of e 2 /h is found to persist even when the film thickness is beyond the twodimensional (2D) hybridization limit. Meanwhile, the Chern insulator-featured chiral edge conduction is manifested by the non-local transport measurements. In contrast to the 2D hybridized thin film, an additional weakly field-dependent longitudinal resistance is observed in the 10 quintuple-layer film, suggesting the influence of the film thickness on the dissipative edge channel in the QAHE regime. The extension of QAHE into the three-dimensional thickness region addresses the universality of this quantum transport phenomenon and motivates the exploration of new QAHE phases with tunable Chern numbers.In addition, the observation of the scale-invariant dissipationless chiral propagation on a macroscopic scale makes a major stride towards ideal low-power interconnect applications.

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Electric-field manipulation of magnetic order has proved of both fundamental and technological importance in spintronic devices. So far, electric-field control of ferromagnetism, magnetization and magnetic anisotropy has been explored in various magnetic materials, but the efficient electric-field control of spin-orbit torque (SOT) still remains elusive. Here, we report the effective electric-field control of a giant SOT in a Cr-doped topological insulator (TI) thin film using a top-gate field-effect transistor structure. The SOT strength can be modulated by a factor of four within the accessible gate voltage range, and it shows strong correlation with the spin-polarized surface current in the film. Furthermore, we demonstrate the magnetization switching by scanning gate voltage with constant current and in-plane magnetic field applied in the film. The effective electric-field control of SOT and the giant spin-torque efficiency in Cr-doped TI may lead to the development of energy-efficient gate-controlled spin-torque devices compatible with modern field-effect semiconductor technologies.