Spin Current Generation Research Articles

Photoinduced Floquet topological magnons in Kitaev magnets

We study periodically driven pure Kitaev model and ferromagnetic phase of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice by off-resonant linearly and circularly polarized lights at zero magnetic field. Using a combination of linear spin wave and Floquet theories, we show that the effective time-independent Hamiltonians in the off-resonant regime map onto the corresponding anisotropic static spin model, plus a tunable photoinduced magnetic field along the [111] direction, which precipitates Floquet topological magnons and chiral magnon edge modes. They are tunable by the light amplitude and polarization. Similarly, we show that the thermal Hall effect induced by the Berry curvature of the Floquet topological magnons can also be tuned by the laser field. Our results pave the way for ultrafast manipulation of topological magnons in irradiated Kitaev magnets, and could play a pivotal role in the investigation of ultrafast magnon spin current generation in Kitaev materials.

Magnon Contribution on Pure Spin Current Generation in Half-Metal

Half-metal is a class of the metallic ferromagnet having a 100% spin polarization. The conduction electrons of half-metals can only carry electrons with a particular spin orientation. Because of this, the current generation of half-metal is expected to be governed only by the particular conducting spin. However, the contribution of the opposite spin, on which the half-metal acts as an insulator, is often neglected. Here we theoretically study the contribution of this insulating spin on the spin transport in the half-metal, in comparison with the conducting spin. We found that the collective dynamic of the insulating spin is responsible for magnonic transport that in turns influence the spin current generation in the half-metal.

Spin orbit torque driven magnetization switching with sputtered Bi2Se3 spin current source

Current induced spin orbit torques (SOTs) offer an efficient pathway to manipulate the magnetization of a ferromagnet for future magnetic memories and logic devices. Among the various non-magnets utilized, the topological insulators, such as Bi2Se3, have proven to be one of most efficient spin current generators for SOTs. So far, the preferred growth technique for such materials is the molecular beam epitaxy technique which is not compatible with the magnetic memory industry. In this study, we utilize a sputter deposited Bi2Se3 to demonstrate highly efficient SOT generation and subsequently magnetization switching.

Light-induced thermal spin current

Thermal generation of magnonic spin current by the spin Seebeck effect (SSE) and spin-polarized current by the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) are fascinating phenomena in the field of spin caloritronics. In this paper, we investigate the thermal spin current driven by light in the framework of the SSE and the ANE. Unlike heating by electrical means, the spin current can be enhanced or reduced, and its sign can even be reversed, thanks to the intrinsic characteristic of the penetrating light. Most importantly, by reversing the direction of the incident light, we are able to separate the contributions from the interfacial and bulk temperature gradients to the transverse spin accumulation. Notably, although the overall spin signals are strongly influenced by the frequency of light, the interfacial and bulk spin Seebeck coefficients are intrinsic and frequency independent. Furthermore, with light excitation, we observe a nearly instantaneous steplike response for both the SSE and the ANE, highlighting the importance of spin-charge conversion by spin-orbit coupling for ultrafast spin caloritronics.

Theory of the spin Hall effect in metal oxide structures

The spin Hall effect is considered a phenomenon in which a charge current is converted to a spin current due to the spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Recently, large values of the spin Hall angle (SHA), as the conversion efficiency between spin and charge currents, were observed in metal oxide structures in ferromagnetic/metal (FM/M) oxide bilayers, although their underlying mechanisms are ambiguous. The present study aims to analytically indicate that a mixed region of metal and oxide formed at the metal/oxide interface includes the surface oxide charge, which allows for introducing an SOC term in the electron Hamiltonian. Based on the results, the SHA increases by two orders of magnitude in a Cu/oxide thin film through the side jump and skew scattering mechanisms, reaching that of heavy metals. In addition, a comprehensive model is provided for the influence of oxidation on the SHA and spin-orbit torques (SOTs) in FM/M structures. We find that the magnitude of SOTs is greatly dependent on (i) the surface oxidation condition, (ii) the current flow path, and (iii) the electronic interface condition. The model represented in the present study is regarded as a promising model and prediction mechanism which explains recent observations. The findings can be implemented in generating spin current without any use of external magnetic fields and heavy metals in spintronic devices.

Strong Damping‐Like Spin‐Orbit Torque and Tunable Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interaction Generated by Low‐Resistivity Pd1−xPtx Alloys

AbstractDespite their great promise for providing a pathway for very efficient and fast manipulation of magnetization, spin‐orbit torque (SOT) operations are currently energy inefficient due to a low damping‐like SOT efficiency per unit current bias, and/or the very high resistivity of the spin Hall materials. This work reports an advantageous spin Hall material, Pd1−xPtx, which combines a low resistivity with a giant spin Hall effect as evidenced with three independent SOT ferromagnetic detectors. The optimal Pd0.25Pt0.75 alloy has a giant internal spin Hall ratio of >0.60 (damping‐like SOT efficiency of ≈0.26 for all three ferromagnets) and a low resistivity of ≈57.5 µΩ cm at a 4 nm thickness. Moreover, it is found that the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), the key ingredient for the manipulation of chiral spin arrangements (e.g., magnetic skyrmions and chiral domain walls), is considerably strong at the Pd1−xPtx/Fe0.6Co0.2B0.2 interface when compared to that at Ta/Fe0.6Co0.2B0.2 or W/Fe0.6Co0.2B0.2 interfaces and can be tuned by a factor of 5 through control of the interfacial spin‐orbital coupling via the heavy metal composition. This work establishes a very effective spin current generator that combines a notably high energy efficiency with a very strong and tunable DMI for advanced chiral spintronics and spin torque applications.

Investigation of spin Seebeck effect and magnetic damping in nanometer thick Ce0.5Y2.5Fe5O12 films

The ferromagnetic insulators (FMI) involving the phonon-magnon interaction in generation of spin currents are providing new opportunities to explore the thermal to electrical conversion efficiency in comparison to electron based themoelectrics. Here, we have investigated the magnetic damping behavior and spin Seebeck effect in crystalline, highly smooth surfaced, nano-meter thick FMI Ce0.5Y2.5Fe5O12 (CeYIG) films, synthesized via pulsed laser deposition technique, for their application in spin caloritronics. The CeYIG films reveal an increase of saturation magnetization, strong magnetic anisotropy and a very low magnetic damping, optimum for investigation of pure spin currents generated via inverse spin Hall Effect. The room temperature longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) was observed on sputtering of 8 nm thick Hall bar patterned rhodium (Rh) on CeYIG films. The magnitude of LSSE voltage obtained showed a characteristic increase and saturation of signal with the increase of film thickness, indicating the origin of spin current generation from the bulk of CeYIG film. The pure spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) was observed in temperature range of 5–300 K implying the LSSE observed in Rh layer is purely from the spin current generated within the FMI and free from parasitic magnetic proximity effect (MPE). The use of Rh as a normal metal for the detection of spin current can open a new window in the exploration of pure spin current related phenomena.

Spin Hall effect from hybridized 3d−4p orbitals

Electrical manipulation of magnetization by spin-orbit torque (SOT) has shown promise for realizing reliable magnetic memories and oscillators. To date, the generation of transverse spin current and SOT, whether it is of spin Hall effect (SHE), Rashba-Edelstein effect or spin-momentum locking origin, relies primarily on materials or heterostructures containing 5$d$ or 6$p$ heavy elements with strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we show that a paramagnetic CoGa compound possesses large enough spin Hall angle to allow robust SOT switching of perpendicularly-magnetized ferrimagnetic MnGa films in CoGa/MnGa/Oxide heterostructures. The spin Hall efficiency estimated via spin Hall magnetoresistance and harmonic Hall measurements is +0.05$\pm$0.01, which is surprisingly large for a system that does not contain any heavy metal element. First-principles calculations corroborate our experimental observations and suggest that the hybridized Co 3$d$ - Ga 4$p$ orbitals along R-X in the Brillouin zone is responsible for the intrinsic SHE. Our results suggest that efficient spin current generation can be realized in intermetallic by alloying a transition metal with a $p$-orbital element and by Fermi level tuning.

Direct observation of the reciprocity between spin current and phonon interconversion

Spin current has emerged as a leading candidate for manipulation of spins in a nano-magnet. We here experimentally show another utility of spin current, viz., it can be used for the generation of phonons. Within the same experimental setup, we also demonstrate the inverse effect of generation of spin current by phonons. To demonstrate these effects, we measured the scattering-matrix of a two-port device with interdigital transducers as one port and an array of Ni/Pt lines as a second port made on a piezoelectric substrate. The off-diagonal elements which correspond to transmission between the ports were found to have 180° relative phase shift. The transmission of electrical signals from port 2 to 1 corresponds to the generation of phonons from spin-current, while transmission from port 1 to 2 corresponds to the inverse effect. These results could be useful for designing spin-current based gyrators. We further show the reciprocity between spin transfer torque and spin pumping effects.

Bloch oscillations of spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice and spin-current generation

We study the Bloch oscillation dynamics of a spin-orbit-coupled cold atomic gas trapped inside a one-dimensioanl optical lattice. The eigenspectra of the system is identified as two interpenetrating Wannier-Stark ladder. Based on that, we carefully analyzed the Bloch oscillation dynamics and found out that intraladder coupling between neighboring rungs of Wannier-Stark ladder give rise to ordinary Bloch oscillation while interladder coupling lead to small amplitude high frequency oscillation superimposed on it. Specifically spin-orbit interaction breaks Galilean invariance, which can be reflected by out-of-phase oscillation of the two spin components in the accelerated frame. The possibility of generating spin current in this system are also explored.

Spin current generation and relaxation in a quenched spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Understanding the effects of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and many-body interactions on spin transport is important in condensed matter physics and spintronics. This topic has been intensively studied for spin carriers such as electrons but barely explored for charge-neutral bosonic quasiparticles (including their condensates), which hold promises for coherent spin transport over macroscopic distances. Here, we explore the effects of synthetic SOC (induced by optical Raman coupling) and atomic interactions on the spin transport in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), where the spin-dipole mode (SDM, actuated by quenching the Raman coupling) of two interacting spin components constitutes an alternating spin current. We experimentally observe that SOC significantly enhances the SDM damping while reducing the thermalization (the reduction of the condensate fraction). We also observe generation of BEC collective excitations such as shape oscillations. Our theory reveals that the SOC-modified interference, immiscibility, and interaction between the spin components can play crucial roles in spin transport.

The observation of inherent spin Seebeck effect in Rh/YIG hybrid structure

Rhodium (Rh) is a 4d metal possessing a large spin orbit coupling strength and spin-Hall conductivity with a very small magnetic susceptibility, implying an insignificant magnetic proximity effect (MPE). We report here the observation of longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) using Rh as a normal metal. A Rh film was sputtered on nanometer thick YIG films of highly crystalline nature and extremely low magnetic damping to obtain Rh/YIG hybrid structure. A clear thermal voltage Vth (SSE voltage) was obtained when a temperature gradient was applied on the Rh/YIG hybrid. The Rh film showed a very weak anomalous Hall resistance and the magneto-resistive testing clearly ruled out the magnetization of the Rh films via MPE. The anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) revealed a clear spin hall magnetoresistance (SMR) signal in Rh film implying a purely intrinsic spin current generation, free from any parasitic magnetic effects. The work can open a new window in the study of pure and uncontaminated spin current, generated in ferromagnetic insulators, using Rh as spin current detector.

Rotation effect on spin current in curved space-time

The spin-orbit interaction and spin Hall effect have drawn special attention. Not only theoretical predictions have been made, but also the generation of spin currents has been achieved in experiment. In this paper, we study the spin current and the spin Hall conductivity under the influence of rotation in the curved space-time. Our work shows that the nontrivial geometries could modify the spin-orbital interaction. By using the extended Drude model, we calculate the spin-dependent force and obtain a correction to this force by non-mediocre geometry. When considering the rotation effect, the general Dirac equation is given. The Hamiltonian under the non-relativistic approximation is obtained by the Foldy-Wouthuysen transform. According to this, we calculate the spin current and spin Hall conductance. The polarization vector is deformed due to the effect of the rotation in the curved space-time. The magnitude and direction of the spin current are changed because of the correction to rotation, and the spin Hall conductivity. The nontrivial space-time geometry leads to the anisotropic nature of the spin current. Our work uses a general method that does not depend on the model, so the result can be used to analyze the electromagnetic dynamics of charged spin particles in quantum Hall systems, and it also helps to theoretically study the defects in crystals. Our results can also be extended to the optical subsystem. Considering the spin effect of photons, based on the spin-orbit coupling of photon, a light splitting phenomenon emerges in an inhomogeneous medium, which is the spin hall effect of photon. Our discussion has a certain reference value for studying the behavior of the photonic spin Hall effect in the static gravitational field. At the same time, using the optical chips to simulate curved space-time, photon manipulation and precision measurement can give some theoretical support.

Pure spin current generated in thermally driven molecular magnetic junctions: a promising mechanism for thermoelectric conversion

Thermally driven magnetic-molecular junctions can be designed as pure spin current generators, spin thermoelectric devices or thermal-spin converters.

Half-metallic behavior in ruthenium-cyclopentadienyl organometallic sandwich molecules.

We have theoretically investigated spin transport properties of one-dimensional ruthenium-cyclopentadienyl sandwich molecules, Run(Cp)n+1, between two gold electrodes. Calculations were performed based on the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and density functional theory. The results clearly reveal that for n = 1, no spin-polarized behavior is observed due to the fully occupied valence shell of ruthenocene molecule, while for the higher n values, the total magnetic moments increase with increasing size of the cluster and a half metallic behavior has been achieved. This can be attributed to the altered ligand field of π-conjugate systems generated by metal centers. Interestingly, for n values higher than 1, not only do the current-voltage curves exhibit an efficient spin-current generation but also a pronounced negative differential resistance behavior can be detected in the bias region. Our results will be strongly informative for the design and control of high-performance organometallic sandwich molecules based on spin-electronic devices.

Evidence of Pure Spin-Current Generated by Spin Pumping in Interface-Localized States in Hybrid Metal-Silicon-Metal Vertical Structures.

Due to the difficulty of growing high-quality semiconductors on ferromagnetic metals, the study of spin diffusion transport in Si was limited to lateral geometry devices. In this work, by using an ultrahigh-vacuum wafer-bonding technique, we have successfully fabricated metal-semiconductor-metal CoFeB/MgO/Si/Pt vertical structures. We hereby demonstrate pure spin-current injection and transport in the perpendicular current flow geometry over a distance larger than 2 μm in n-type Si at room temperature. In those experiments, a pure propagating spin current is generated via ferromagnetic resonance spin pumping and converted into a measurable voltage by using the inverse spin Hall effect occurring in the top Pt layer. A systematic study varying both Si and MgO thicknesses reveals the important role played by the localized states at the MgO-Si interface for the spin-current generation. Proximity effects involving indirect exchange interactions between the ferromagnet and the MgO-Si interface states appears to be a prerequisite to establishing the necessary out-of-equilibrium spin population in Si under the spin-pumping action.

Spin current generation by thermal gradient in graphene/h-BN/graphene lateral heterojunctions

Electron transport driven by a temperature gradient in a transport junction constructed by connecting a zigzag hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanoribbon between two graphene nanoribbons (Gr/BN/Gr) is studied by density functional calculations and non-equilibrium Green’s function method. When the zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons are in the ferromagnetic configuration, the BN barrier introduces a spin-dependent scattering and causes an ‘X’-type spin-dependent transmission functions around the Fermi level at equilibrium. In a linear response approximation, this gives rise to a Seebeck thermopower with opposite signs for different spins. It drives electrons with different spins to flow in opposite directions under a finite temperature gradient. Calculations show that the charge current is zero while spin current is not, thus pure spin current is generated. These findings suggests the great importance of BN barrier in the generation of thermal spin current using graphene and the idea should be taken into consideration in the design of spintronic devices using two dimensional materials.

Importance of spin current generation and detection by spin injection and the spin Hall effect for lateral spin valve performance

Lateral spin valves are attractive device geometries where functional spin currents can be generated and detected by various mechanisms, such as spin injection and the direct and the inverse spin Hall effect. To understand the mechanisms behind these effects better, as well as their potential for application in devices, we combine multiple mechanisms in multi-terminal Pt–Py–Cu lateral spin valves: we generate pure spin currents in the copper spin conduit both via the spin Hall effect in platinum and electric spin injection from permalloy and detect signals both via conventional non-local detection and via the inverse spin Hall effect in the same device at variable temperatures. Differences are observed, which we explain by the different spin injection and detection mechanisms, revealing their importance for the temperature dependence, which is not just governed by the spin transport in the conduit as previously claimed. By determining a different sensitivity of the observed effects on the interfaces, we highlight the importance of the exact current path for the device operation.

Spin pumping from nuclear spin waves

Various spintronic phenomena originate from the exchange of angular momentum between the spin of electrons and other degrees of freedom in crystalline materials. Many degrees of freedom, such as magnetization1 and mechanical motion2, have already been united into this exchange framework. However, the nuclear spin—a key angular momentum—has yet to be incorporated. Here we observe spin pumping from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), in which nuclear spin dynamics emits a spin current, a flow of spin angular momentum of electrons. By using the canted antiferromagnet MnCO3, in which typical nuclear spin-wave formation is established due to the reinforced hyperfine coupling, we find that a spin current is generated from an NMR. Nuclear spins are indispensable for quantum information technology3 and are also frequently used in various sensors, such as in magnetic resonance imaging4. The observed NMR spin pumping allows spin-current generation from nuclei and will enable spintronic detection of nuclear spin states. Spin current is generated by pumping from nuclear spin waves. The nuclear magnetic resonance is used to transfer angular momentum from the nuclei of an antiferromagnet to a propagating spin current that is subsequently collected in a distant electrode.

Enhancement of two-magnon scattering induced by a randomly distributed antiferromagnetic exchange field

We report a quantitative study of two-magnon scattering in ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{81}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{19}$/NiO bilayers with various NiO thicknesses ${d}_{\mathrm{NiO}}$. We found that the magnetic damping of the ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{81}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{19}$/NiO bilayer strongly depends on ${d}_{\mathrm{NiO}}$, which evidences that the amplitude of the two-magnon scattering increases with increasing the thickness of the antiferromagnetic layer. The enhancement of the two-magnon scattering in the ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{81}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{19}$/NiO bilayer is attributed to the increase of randomly distributed antiferromagnetic exchange fields. We calculated the spin-mixing conductance by eliminating the effect of the two-magnon scattering, and found that the value is at $8.1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{nm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ for the ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{81}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{19}$/NiO interface. Our result gives further insight on the role of the two-magnon scattering in manipulating magnetic damping, which is crucial for generation and transmission of spin currents in ferromagnet/antiferromagnet systems.