High Spin Hall Conductivity in Large-Area Type-II Dirac Semimetal PtTe₂

Manipulation of magnetization by electric-current-induced spin–orbit torque (SOT) is of great importance for spintronic applications because of its merits in energy-efficient and high-speed operation. An ideal material for SOT applications should possess high charge-spin conversion efficiency and high electrical conductivity. Recently, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) emerge as intriguing platforms for SOT study because of their controllability in spin–orbit coupling, conductivity, and energy band topology. Although TMDs show great potentials in SOT applications, the present study is restricted to the mechanically exfoliated samples with small sizes and relatively low conductivities. Here, a manufacturable recipe is developed to fabricate large-area thin films of PtTe₂, a type-II Dirac semimetal, to study their capability of generating SOT. Large SOT efficiency together with high conductivity results in a giant spin Hall conductivity of PtTe₂ thin films, which is the largest value among the presently reported TMDs. It is further demonstrated that the SOT from PtTe₂ layer can switch a perpendicularly magnetized CoTb layer efficiently. This work paves the way for employing PtTe₂-like TMDs for wafer-scale spintronic device applications.