Film and method for BiSbX (012) texture for SOT devices

A spin-orbit torque (SOT) device, comprising:

• a substrate;
• a seed layer disposed over the substrate, the seed layer comprising a (100) Heusler alloy with a-axis in a range of about 5.8 Å to about 6.6 Å;
• a first barrier layer disposed in contact with the seed layer, the first barrier layer comprising an oxide, nitride, or carbide material;
• a ferromagnetic layer disposed in contact with the first barrier layer;
• a second barrier layer disposed in contact with the ferromagnetic layer, the second barrier layer comprising an oxide, nitride, or carbide material;
• a bismuth antimony (BiSb) layer disposed in contact with the second barrier layer, the BiSb layer having a (012) orientation;
• and
• a cap layer disposed over the BiSb layer.

A spin-orbit torque (SOT) device, comprising:

• a substrate;
• a seed layer disposed over the substrate, the seed layer comprising a (100) Heusler alloy with a-axis in a range of about 5.8 Å to about 6.6 Å;
• a first barrier layer disposed over the seed layer, the first barrier layer comprising an oxide, nitride, or carbide material;
• a bismuth (BiSb) layer disposed on the first barrier layer, the BiSb layer having a (012) orientation;
• a second barrier layer disposed on the BiSb layer, the second barrier layer comprising an oxide, nitride, or carbide material;
• a ferromagnetic layer disposed on the second barrier layer;
• and
• a cap layer disposed over the ferromagnetic layer, the cap layer comprising ene or more materials selected from the group consisting of:
• NiFeGe, NiFeTaN, and/or oxidized NiFeTaN, or comprising a multi-layer structure selected from the group consisting of NiFeGe/Ru NiFeGe/Ru, where “/” denotes separate layers of the multi-layer structure.