Paper published in Physical Review Applied
Separation of bulk and surface contributions to the damping of permalloy on large-area chemical-vapor-deposited MoS2.
Two‑dimensional transition‑metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are highly promising materials for spintronic applications because their strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC) enables efficient spin–charge interconversion—an essential mechanism for operating spintronic devices. However, most existing 2D spintronics studies still rely on mechanically exfoliated TMDC flakes, a process that is inherently unsuited for wafer‑scale fabrication and therefore limits technological scalability.
In a recently published study by researchers at the University of Manchester, large‑area monolayer and bilayer MoS₂ films were successfully grown using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). These TMDC layers were subsequently combined with sputtered ferromagnetic (FM) Ni0.8Fe0.2 films of varying thickness to form wafer‑scale TMDC–FM heterostructures.
These heterostructures provide a robust platform for investigating the physical origins of the magnetic damping parameter. In the context of spin‑orbit torque (SOT) magnetoresistive random‑access memory (MRAM), the damping parameter quantifies the relaxation of magnetization and reflects energy dissipation during device operation. Damping is also closely linked to spin pumping and spin–charge interconversion processes in ferromagnet–normal‑metal bilayers.
This work enables, for the first time at wafer scale, the separation of bulk and interfacial contributions to magnetic damping in TMDC-FM heterostructures. Such insights help advance the fundamental understanding needed to engineer practical, energy‑efficient spintronic devices.
This work is published in Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 034014, 2026: read it here!
