Spin–orbit torque (SOT) is an emerging technology that enables the efficient manipulation of spintronic devices. The initial processes of interest in SOTs involved electric fields, spin–orbit coupling, conduction electron spins, and magnetization. More recently, interest has grown to include a variety of other processes that include phonons, magnons, or heat. Over the past decade, many materials have been explored to achieve a larger SOT efficiency. Recently, holistic design to maximize the performance of SOT devices has extended material research from a nonmagnetic layer to a magnetic layer. The rapid development of SOT has spurred a variety of SOT-based applications. In this article, we first review the theories of SOTs by introducing the various mechanisms thought to generate or control SOTs, such as the spin Hall effect, the Rashba-Edelstein effect, the orbital Hall effect, thermal gradients, magnons, and strain effects. Then, we discuss the materials that enable these effects, including metals, metallic alloys, topological insulators, 2-D materials, and complex oxides. We also discuss the important roles in SOT devices of different types of magnetic layers, such as magnetic insulators, antiferromagnets, and ferrimagnets. Afterward, we discuss device applications utilizing SOTs. We discuss and compare three- and two-terminal SOT-magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAMs); we mention various schemes to eliminate the need for an external field. We provide technological application considerations for SOT-MRAM and give perspectives on SOT-based neuromorphic devices and circuits. In addition to SOT-MRAM, we present SOT-based spintronic terahertz generators, nano-oscillators, and domain-wall and skyrmion racetrack memories. This article aims to achieve a comprehensive review of SOT theory, materials, and applications, guiding future SOT development in both the academic and industrial sectors.

Hybrid dynamic systems have recently gained interest with respect to both fundamental physics and device applications, particularly with their potential for coherent information processing. In this perspective, we will focus on the recent rapid developments of magnon-based hybrid systems, which seek to combine magnonic excitations with diverse excitations for transformative applications in devices, circuits, and information processing. Key to their promising potentials is that magnons are highly tunable excitations and can be easily engineered to couple with various dynamic media and platforms. The capability of reaching strong coupling with many different excitations has positioned magnons well for studying solid-state coherent dynamics and exploiting unique functionality. In addition, with their gigahertz frequency bandwidth and the ease of fabrication and miniaturization, magnonic devices and systems can be conveniently integrated into microwave circuits for mimicking a broad range of device concepts that have been applied in microwave electronics, photonics, and quantum information. We will discuss a few potential directions for advancing magnon hybrid systems, including on-chip geometry, novel coherent magnonic functionality, and coherent transduction between different platforms. As a future outlook, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges of magnonic hybrid systems for their applications in quantum information and magnonic logic.

We demonstrate strong magnon-photon coupling of a thin-film Permalloy device fabricated on a coplanar superconducting resonator. A coupling strength of 0.152 GHz and a cooperativity of 68 are found for a 30-nm-thick Permalloy stripe. The coupling strength is tunable by rotating the biasing magnetic field or changing the volume of Permalloy. We also observe an enhancement of magnon-photon coupling in the nonlinear regime of the superconducting resonator, which is attributed to the nucleation of dynamic flux vortices. Our results demonstrate a critical step towards future integrated hybrid systems for quantum magnonics and on-chip coherent information transfer.

Quantum technology has made tremendous strides over the past two decades with remarkable advances in materials engineering, circuit design, and dynamic operation. In particular, the integration of different quantum modules has benefited from hybrid quantum systems, which provide an important pathway for harnessing different natural advantages of complementary quantum systems and for engineering new functionalities. This review article focuses on the current frontiers with respect to utilizing magnons for novel quantum functionalities. Magnons are the fundamental excitations of magnetically ordered solid-state materials and provide great tunability and flexibility for interacting with various quantum modules for integration in diverse quantum systems. The concomitant-rich variety of physics and material selection enable exploration of novel quantum phenomena in materials science and engineering. In addition, the ease of generating strong coupling with other excitations makes hybrid magnonics a unique platform for quantum engineering. We start our discussion with circuit-based hybrid magnonic systems, which are coupled with microwave photons and acoustic phonons. Subsequently, we focus on the recent progress of magnon–magnon coupling within confined magnetic systems. Next, we highlight new opportunities for understanding the interactions between magnons and nitrogen-vacancy centers for quantum sensing and implementing quantum interconnects. Lastly, we focus on the spin excitations and magnon spectra of novel quantum materials investigated with advanced optical characterization.

The spin diffusion length of Pt at room temperature and at 8 K is experimentally determined via spin pumping and spin Hall effect in permalloy/Pt bilayers. Voltages generated during excitation of ferromagnetic resonance from the inverse spin Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance effect were investigated with a broadband approach. Varying the Pt layer thickness gives rise to an evolution of the voltage line shape due to the superposition of the above two effects. By studying the ratio of the two voltage components with the Pt layer thickness, the spin diffusion length of Pt can be directly extracted. We obtain a spin diffusion length of ∼1.2 nm at room temperature and ∼1.6 nm at 8 K.

We experimentally identify coherent spin pumping in the magnon-magnon hybrid modes of yttrium iron garnet/permalloy (YIG/Py) bilayers. By reducing the YIG and Py thicknesses, the strong interfacial exchange coupling leads to large avoided crossings between the uniform mode of Py and the spin wave modes of YIG enabling accurate determination of modification of the linewidths due to the dampinglike torque. We identify additional linewidth suppression and enhancement for the in-phase and out-of-phase hybrid modes, respectively, which can be interpreted as concerted dampinglike torque from spin pumping. Furthermore, varying the Py thickness shows that both the fieldlike and dampinglike couplings vary like $1/\sqrt{t_{\mathrm{Py}}}$, verifying the prediction by the coupled Landau-Lifshitz equations.