  Current-induced spin-orbit torque (SOT) in normal metal/ferromagnet (NM/FM)
bilayers bears great promise for technological applications, but the
microscopic origin of purely interfacial SOTs in ultra-thin systems is not yet
fully understood. Here, we show that a linear response theory with a
nonperturbative treatment of spin-dependent interactions and impurity
scattering potential predicts damping-like SOTs that are strictly absent in
perturbative approaches. The technique is applied to a two-dimensional
Rashba-coupled ferromagnet (the paradigmatic model of a NM/FM interface), where
higher-order scattering processes encoding skew scattering from nonmagnetic
impurities allow for current-induced spin polarization with nonzero components
along all spatial directions. This is in stark contrast to previous results of
perturbative methods (neglecting skew scattering), which predict a coplanar
spin-polarization locked perpendicular to the charge current as a result of
conventional Rashba-Edelstein effect. Furthermore, the angular dependence of
ensuing SOTs and their dependence upon the scattering potential strength is
analysed numerically. Simple analytic expressions for the
spin-density--charge-current response function, and related SOT efficiencies,
are obtained in the weak scattering limit. We find that the extrinsic
damping-like torques driven by impurity scattering reaches efficiencies of up
to 7% of the field-like (Rashba-Edelstein) torque. Our microscopic theory shows
that bulk phenomena, such as the spin Hall effect, are not a necessity in the
generation of the damping-like SOTs of the type observed in experiments on
ultra-thin systems.
