  Modern spintronics relies on the generation of spin currents through
spin-orbit coupling. The spin-current generation has been believed to be
triggered by current-induced orbital dynamics, which governs the angular
momentum transfer from the lattice to the electrons in solids. The fundamental
role of the orbital response in the angular momentum dynamics suggests the
importance of the orbital counterpart of spin currents: orbital currents.
However, evidence for its existence has been elusive. Here, we demonstrate the
generation of giant orbital currents and uncover fundamental features of the
orbital response. We experimentally and theoretically show that orbital
currents propagate over longer distances than spin currents by more than an
order of magnitude in a ferromagnet and nonmagnets. Furthermore, we find that
the orbital current enables electric manipulation of magnetization with
efficiencies significantly higher than the spin counterpart. These findings
open the door to orbitronics that exploits orbital transport and spin-orbital
coupled dynamics in solid-state devices.
