Spin Transfer Torque: a new method to excite or reverse a magnetization

The recent discovery that a spin polarized current can exert a large torque on a ferromagnet through a transfer of spin angular momentum, offers a new method to manipulate a magnetization without applying any external field. This additional spin transfer torque can generate oscillatory magnetic modes or even magnetization reversal, for a sufficiently large current. Although the nature of the magnetization dynamics induced by this new effect is not yet completely resolved, spin transfer is already a turning point in spintronics and is today the subject of an extensive research for applications in magnetic random access memory, fast programmable logic, high-density recording and in high frequency devices for telecommunications. To cite this article: V. Cros et al., C. R. Physique 6 (2005).