Robust spin-orbit torque and spin-galvanic effect at the Fe/GaAs (001) interface at room temperature

Interfacial spin-orbit torques (SOTs) enable the manipulation of the magnetization through in-plane charge currents, which has drawn increasing attention for spintronic applications. The search for material systems providing efficient SOTs, has been focused on polycrystalline ferromagnetic metal/non-magnetic metal bilayers. In these systems, currents flowing in the non-magnetic layer generate—due to strong spin–orbit interaction—spin currents via the spin Hall effect and induce a torque at the interface to the ferromagnet. Here we report the observation of robust SOT occuring at a single crystalline Fe/GaAs (001) interface at room temperature. We find that the magnitude of the interfacial SOT, caused by the reduced symmetry at the interface, is comparably strong as in ferromagnetic metal/non-magnetic metal systems. The large spin-orbit fields at the interface also enable spin-to-charge current conversion at the interface, known as spin-galvanic effect. The results suggest that single crystalline Fe/GaAs interfaces may enable efficient electrical magnetization manipulation.