Hanle Curves Research Articles

Spin imaging of Poiseuille flow of a viscous electronic fluid

Recent progress in fabricating high-quality conductors with small densities of defects has initiated the studies of the viscous electron fluid and has motivated the search for the evidences of the hydrodynamic regime of electron transport. In this work we come up with the spin imaging technique allowing us to attest to the emergence of electron hydrodynamic flows. Based on numerical calculations we demonstrate that the injected electron spin density is inhomogeneous across the channel when the viscous electron fluid forms the Poiseuille flow. We also argue that the Hanle curves at different positions across the channel acquire relative phase shifts resulting from the variation of the electron drift velocity in inhomogeneous hydrodynamic flows. The studied effects can be employed to evidence and study the viscous electron fluid non-invasively.

Enhanced Spin Accumulation in Semiconductor at Room Temperature Using Ni0.65Zn0.35Fe2O4(NZFO) as Spin Injector in NZFO/MgO/p-Si Device

In this article, the fabrication of a Ni0.65Zn0.35Fe2O4/MgO/p-Si heterostructure device has been optimized using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, and a detailed investigation of its structural, electrical, and magnetic features has been performed experimentally. The electronic and magneto-transport characteristics have been explored in the temperature range of 100–300 K. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the heterojunction have been recorded, which displayed an excellent rectifying magnetic tunnel diode-like behavior throughout that temperature regime. The application of an external magnetic field parallel to the plane of the NZFO film causes the current (I) across the junction to decrease, clearly indicating positive junction magnetoresistance (JMR) of the heterostructure. The root of displaying positive magnetoresistance in our heterojunction has been well justified using the standard spin injection model. The electrical injection of spin-polarized carriers and its accumulation and detection in a p-Si channel have been demonstrated using the NZFO/MgO tunnel contact using a three-terminal (3-T) Hanle device. The parameters such as spin lifetime (99 ps), spin diffusion length (276 nm), and spin polarization (0.44) have been estimated from the Hanle curve detected in our heterostructure at room temperature, making the Ni0.65Zn0.35Fe2O4/MgO/p-Si device a very favorable promising junction structure in the field of spintronics for several device appliances in the future.

Spin polarization recovery and Hanle effect for charge carriers interacting with nuclear spins in semiconductors

We report on theoretical and experimental study of the spin polarization recovery and Hanle effect for the charge carriers interacting with the fluctuating nuclear spins in the semiconductor structures. We start the theoretical description from the simplest model of static and isotropic nuclear spin fluctuations. Then we describe the modification of the polarization recovery and Hanle curves due to the anisotropy of the hyperfine interaction, finite nuclear spin correlation time, and the strong pulsed spin excitation. For the latter case, we describe the resonance spin amplification effect in the Faraday geometry and discuss the manifestations of the quantum Zeno effect. The set of the experimental results for various structures and experimental conditions is chosen to highlight the specific effects predicted theoretically. We show that the spin polarization recovery is a very valuable tool for addressing carrier spin dynamics in semiconductors and their nanostructures.

Proximity exchange coupling in a Fe/MgO/Si tunnel contact detected by the inverted Hanle effect

A ferromagnet is shown to exert an exchange field on the spin accumulation localized in the semiconductor interface region of a Fe/MgO/Si tunnel contact. The proximity exchange coupling across the MgO modifies spin precession of the spin accumulation and thereby produces detectable signatures in the inverted Hanle effect: exchange-induced shifts of the inverted Hanle curves, hysteresis, and discontinuities at the coercive field of the ferromagnet, at which the exchange field is reversed. The proximity exchange field is locked antiparallel to the magnetization of the ferromagnet, has values up to 380 Oe, and can be controlled by a bias voltage across the tunnel contact.

Influence of a Longitudinal Field on the Large In‐Plane Nuclear Field Formation in Single Quantum Dots

Experimental studies on the role of nuclear quadrupole interaction (NQI) to the in‐plane nuclear field formation are performed in single self‐assembled As quantum dots (QDs). In Hanle‐effect measurements, the electron depolarization curves deviating far from a standard Lorentzian shape are observed: the curves with anomalously large width and hysteretic behavior at the critical transverse magnetic field. These anomalies indicate the growth of an in‐plane nuclear field compensating the applied transverse magnetic field up to ≈1 T and appear regardless of the excitation helicity. The azimuth angle dependence of the critical field of the hysteretic response reveals that the principal axis of the NQI is almost parallel to the crystal growth axis. This fact suggests that the main origin of the NQI which is related with in‐plane nuclear‐field formation is not random alloying among In and Al nuclei but residual strain of QDs. Furthermore, a longitudinal magnetic field by a neodymium magnet breaks the excitation‐helicity independence of the Hanle curves and the shape of curves becomes very different depending on the helicity. The obtained results are explained well with a simple consideration and indicate that the NQI takes multirole in the formation of in‐plane nuclear field.

Anomalous Hanle curves induced by in-plane nuclear field in single self-assembled InAlAs and InAs nanostructures

We studied the formation mechanism of in-plane nuclear field by anomalous Hanle effect measurements in single self-assembled In0.75Al0.25As/Al0.3Ga0.7As quantum dots and InAs/GaAs quantum rings. The observed anomalous Hanle curves indicated quite large width and hysteretic behavior to the externally applied magnetic field. These anomalies appears in both materials whose electron g factors have opposite sign each other, and cannot be reproduced by a traditional spin dynamics model. In this study, we show that a proposed spin dynamics model can explain the formation of a large in-plane nuclear field regardless of the sign of electron g factor. The model is based on the dynamic nuclear spin polarization mechanism including the effects of nuclear quadrupole interaction.

Strongly-coupled electron and nuclear spin systems in InGaAs epilayers

Photoluminescence (PL) polarization was experimentally studied for the samples with thick InGaAs epitaxial layers with different concentrations of donors in the transverse magnetic field (the Hanle effect). A well-pronounced W-structure observed in the set of samples under study indicate a strong electron-nuclear spin interaction. Analysis of the Hanle curves measured at different pumping powers provided important parameters of the electron-nuclear spin system, such as the Knight field and kinetic local field. We obtained characteristic values of the electron spin relaxation time by modeling the Hanle curves measured with fast modulation of the excitation polarization at different pumping powers,.

Single-beam optical measurement of spin dynamics in CdTe/(Cd,Mg)Te quantum wells

We study optical pumping of resident electron spins under resonant excitation of trions in n-type CdTe/(Cd,Mg)Te quantum wells subject to a transverse magnetic field. In contrast to the comprehensively used time-resolved pump-probe techniques with polarimetric detection, we exploit here a single beam configuration in which the time-integrated intensity of the excitation laser light transmitted through the quantum wells is detected. The transmitted intensity reflects the bleaching of light absorption due to optical pumping of the resident electron spins and can be used to evaluate the Larmor precession frequency of the optically oriented carriers and their spin relaxation time. Application of the magnetic field leads to depolarization of the electron spin ensemble so that the Hanle effect is observed. Excitation with a periodic sequence of laser pulses leads to optical pumping in the rotating frame if the Larmor precession frequency is synchronized with the pulse repetition rate. This is manifested by the appearance of Hanle curves every 3.36 or 44.2 mT for pulse repetition rates of 75.8 or 999 MHz, respectively. From the experimental data we evaluate the g factor of |g|=1.61 and the spin relaxation time of 14 ns for the optically pumped resident electrons, in agreement with previous time-resolved pump-probe studies.

Room Temperature Spin Accumulation Effect in Boron Doped Si Created by Epitaxial Fe3Si/p-Si Schottky Contact

To study spin-dependent transport phenomena in Fe3Si/p-Si structures we fabricated 3-terminal planar microdevices and metal/semiconductor diode using conventional photolithography and wet chemical etching. I‒V curve of prepared diode demonstrates rectifying behavior, which indicates the presence of Schottky barrier in Fe3Si/p-Si interface. Calculated Schottky barrier height is 0.57 eV, which can provide necessary conditions for spin accumulation in p-Si. Indeed, in 3-terminal planar device with Fe3Si/p-Si Schottky contact Hanle effect was observed. By the analysis of Hanle curves spin lifetime spin diffusion length in p-Si were calculated, which are 145 ps and 405 nm, respectively (at T = 300 K). Spin lifetime strongly depends on temperature which can be related to the fact that spin-dependent transport in our device is realized via the surface states. This gives a perspective of creation of spintronic devices based on metal/semiconductor structure without need for forming tunnel or Schottky tunnel contact.

Spatial variation of dynamic nuclear spin polarization probed by the non-local Hanle effect

The spatial distribution of dynamic nuclear spin polarization (DNP) has been investigated in a lateral all-semiconductor spin-injection device based on a (Ga,Mn)As/n+-GaAs spin-Esaki diode. The DNP induced by the hyperfine interaction has been probed via satellite peaks in non-local Hanle-type spin precession signals, indicating the recovery of electron spin polarization. A quantitative analysis using the self-consistent calculation reproduces the magnetic field position of the satellite peaks as a function of spin injection bias and injector-detector separation. The distance dependence of the Hanle curves reveals that the spin-lattice relaxation rather than the hyperfine interaction is the dominant mechanism of nuclear spin relaxation in the non-local region.

In-plane nuclear field formation investigated in single self-assembled quantum dots

We studied the formation mechanism of the in-plane nuclear field in single self-assembled In$_{0.75}$Al$_{0.25}$As/Al$_{0.3}$Ga$_{0.7}$As quantum dots. The Hanle curves with an anomalously large width and hysteretic behavior at the critical transverse magnetic field were observed in many single quantum dots grown in the same QD sample. In order to explain the anomalies in the Hanle curve indicating the formation of a large nuclear field perpendicular to the photo-injected electron spin polarization, we propose a new model based on the current phenomenological model for dynamic nuclear spin polarization. The model includes the effects of the nuclear quadrupole interaction and the sign inversion between in-plane and out-of-plane g-factors, and the model calculations reproduce successfully the characteristics of the observed anomalies in the Hanle curves.

Simulations on the Influence of Spatially Varying Spin Transport Parameters on the Measured Spin Lifetime in Graphene Non‐Local Spin Valves

Spin transport properties of graphene non-local spin valve devices are typically determined from Hanle spin precession measurements by using a simplified solution of the one-dimensional Bloch-Torrey equation which assumes infinitely long transport channels and uniform spin transport parameter. We investigate the effects of a finite graphene size and explore the influence of spatially-varying transport parameters on the measured Hanle curves by finite element simulations. We assume enhanced spin dephasing in the contact-covered graphene areas with additional Fermi level pinning and explore the influence of non-magnetic reference electrodes which are not properly decoupled from graphene. In experiments, it is typically observed that the spin lifetime increases with increasing charge carrier density. None of our simulations can reproduce this trend indicating that this dependency originates from spin transport through graphene areas which are not covered by contacts. We find that the extracted spin lifetime might be overestimated in flakes which are shorter than the spin diffusion length. Moreover, contact-induced spin dephasing leads to an overall reduction of the extracted spin lifetime. Additionally, we show that non-magnetic reference electrodes may also influence the measured spin lifetime even though they are not part of the transport area under investigation.

Gate-dependent spin Hall induced nonlocal resistance and the symmetry of spin-orbit scattering in Au-clustered graphene

Engineering the electron dispersion of graphene to be spin-dependent is crucial for the realization of spin-based logic devices. Enhancing spin-orbit coupling in graphene can induce spin Hall effect, which can be adapted to generate or detect a spin current without a ferromagnet. Recently, both chemically and physically decorated graphenes have shown to exhibit large nonlocal resistance via the spin Hall and its inverse effects. However, these nonlocal transport results have raised critical debates due to the absence of field dependent Hanle curve in subsequent studies. Here, we introduce Au clusters on graphene to enhance spin-orbit coupling and employ a nonlocal geometry to study the spin Hall induced nonlocal resistance. Our results show that the nonlocal resistance highly depends on the applied gate voltage due to various current channels. However, the spin Hall induced nonlocal resistance becomes dominant at a particular carrier concentration, which is further confirmed through Hanle curves. The obtained spin Hall angle is as high as $\ensuremath{\sim}0.09$ at 2 K. Temperature dependence of spin relaxation time is governed by the symmetry of spin-orbit coupling, which also depends on the gate voltage: asymmetric near the charge neutral point and symmetric at high carrier concentration. These results inspire an effective method for generating spin currents in graphene and provide important insights for the spin Hall effect as well as the symmetry of spin scattering in physically decorated graphene.

Hanle spin precession in a two-dimensional electron system

We investigate the nonlocal Hanle effect in high mobility two-dimensional electron systems using (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs spin Esaki diodes as spin selective contacts. Spin signals in these systems can be strongly affected by dynamic nuclear polarization, which mimics long spin-relaxation times extracted from the measured Hanle curves. Here, we introduce a method which largely suppresses these effects by using an ac injection-detection setup. This allows us to extract from the measurements realistic spin lifetimes on the order of single nanoseconds. As the detection of Hanle signals is also strongly affected by offset signals we discuss the magnetic field dependence of these background voltages observed in lateral nonlocal spin injection devices. We show how the strength of the background magnetoresistance can be minimized by choosing a proper device geometry.

Signature of Hanle precession in trilayer MoS2 : Theory and experiment

Valley-spin coupling in transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) can result in unusual spin transport behaviors under an external magnetic field. Nonlocal resistance measured from 2D materials such as TMDs via electrical Hanle experiments are predicted to exhibit nontrivial features, compared with results from conventional materials due to the presence of intervalley scattering as well as a strong internal spin-orbit field. Here, for the first time, we report the all-electrical injection and non-local detection of spin polarized carriers in trilayer MoS_2 films. We calculate the Hanle curves theoretically when the separation between spin injector and detector is much larger than spin diffusion length, \lamda_s. The experimentally observed curve matches the theoretically-predicted Hanle shape under the regime of slow intervalley scattering. The estimated spin life-time was found to be around 110 ps at 30 K.

Spin dynamics of quadrupole nuclei in InGaAs quantum dots

Photoluminescence polarization is experimentally studied for samples with (In,Ga)As/GaAs selfassembled quantum dots in transverse magnetic field (Hanle effect) under slow modulation of the excitation light polarization from fractions of Hz to tens of kHz. The polarization reflects the evolution of strongly coupled electron-nuclear spin system in the quantum dots. Strong modification of the Hanle curves under variation of the modulation period is attributed to the peculiarities of the spin dynamics of quadrupole nuclei, which states are split due to deformation of the crystal lattice in the quantum dots. Analysis of the Hanle curves is fulfilled in the framework of a phenomenological model considering a separate dynamics of a nuclear field BNd determined by the +/- 12 nuclear spin states and of a nuclear field BNq determined by the split-off states +/- 3/2, +/- 5/2, etc. It is found that the characteristic relaxation time for the nuclear field BNd is of order of 0.5 s, while the relaxation of the field BNq is faster by three orders of magnitude.

Hanle precession in the presence of energy-dependent coupling between localized states and an epitaxial graphene spin channel

Hanle spin precession measurements are a common method to extract the spin transport properties of graphene. In epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide, these measurements show unexpected behavior, due to presumed localized states in the carbon buffer layer that is present between the channel and the substrate. As a consequence, the Hanle curve narrows in its magnetic field dependence and can show an unconventional shape, which has been experimentally observed and modeled in previous studies. Here, we extend the previously developed model by assuming that the localized states are charge traps, that have a power-law distribution of trapping times. Our simulations show that the energy dependence of these trapping times can be extracted from the temperature evolution of the Hanle curve, which was previously observed in experiments. Our extended model gives better insight into what processes play a role when a spin channel is coupled to localized states and their relation to the experimental observations.

Spin diffusion and non-local spin-valve effect in an exfoliated multilayer graphene with a Co electrode

We fabricated a non-local spin valve with a thin layer of graphite with Co transparent electrodes. The spin-valve effect and spin precession were observed at room temperature. The magnitude of the mangetoresistance increases when temperature decreases. The spin-relaxation time, , obtained from the fitting of the Hanle curves increases with decreasing temperature with a weak dependence while the spin-diffusion constant D decreases. At room temperature, exceeds 100 ps and the spin-diffusion length, , is ∼2 μm. The temperature dependence of is not monotonic, and it has the largest value at room temperature. Our results show that multilayer graphene is a suitable material for spintronic devices.

Spin-dependent transport mechanisms in CoFe/MgO/n+-Si junctions investigated by frequency response of signals

We investigated spin-dependent transport properties in CoFe/MgO/n+-Si junctions by measuring Hanle signals and their dependence on the measurement frequency. The CoFe/MgO/n+-Si junctions exhibited two types of Hanle curves with different half-widths. Hanle signals with a broad half-width were observed mainly in the low-bias region, and these signals exhibited apparent frequency dependence and disappeared in the high-frequency region though Hanle signals with narrow half-widths were almost independent of the measurement frequency used in this study. This frequency dependence is explained by the mechanism of two-step tunneling. These results show that investigating the frequency response signals gives clear information on spin-dependent transport mechanisms.

Spin transport inn-type single-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides

Valley asymmetry of the electron spectrum in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) originates from the spin-orbit coupling. Presence of spin-orbit fields of opposite signs for electrons in K and K' valleys in combination with possibility of intervalley scattering result in a nontrivial spin dynamics. This dynamics is reflected in the dependence of nonlocal resistance on external magnetic field (the Hanle curve). We calculate theoretically the Hanle shape in TMDs. It appears that, unlike conventional materials without valley asymmetry, the Hanle shape in TMDs is different for normal and parallel orientations of the external field. For normal orientation, it has two peaks for slow intervalley scattering, while, for fast intervalley scattering the shape is usual. For parallel orientation, the Hanle curve exhibits a cusp at zero field. This cusp is a signature of a slow-decaying valley-asymmetric mode of the spin dynamics.