Spin Hall Effect Research Articles

Micromagnetic insights on in-plane magnetization rotation and propagation of magnetization waves in nanowires

Utilizing micromagnetic modeling, we have explained the unprobed characteristics of 360° full cycle in-plane magnetization rotation and the resulting propagation of a magnetization wave along a ferromagnet nanowire. The magnetization wave, which is generated by setting off spin oscillation at one end of a ferromagnetic strip, propagates till the end of the wire. A perpendicular spin torque oscillator (STO) could generate magnetization rotation at one end of the ferromagnetic strip that is also part of the STO. Our results demonstrate that the oscillation frequency of the spins along the wire maintains excellent fidelity while the spatial wavelength of the magnetic wave increases. The driving mechanism behind the propagation of the wave is found to be exchange-springs, which enables the propagation of the wave without the need for a 'carrier' force, such as spin-transfer torque (STT) or spin Hall effect (SHE). Furthermore, we demonstrate that the gradient of the exchange energy drives the magnetic wave forward, while the in and out of plane anisotropy fields govern the shape of spin oscillation trajectories along the wire. Additionally, we show that stopping the oscillation at the STO end causes the wave to cease propagation after relaxation, and altering the STO rotational chirality leads to merging and annihilating domain walls of opposite winding numbers.

Controlling the symmetry of the photonic spin Hall effect by an optical vortex pair

Controlling the symmetry of the photonic spin Hall effect by an optical vortex pair

Giant spin Hall effect in AB-stacked MoTe2/WSe2 bilayers.

The spin Hall effect (SHE), in which an electrical current generates a transverse spin current, plays an important role in spintronics for the generation and manipulation of spin-polarized electrons. The phenomenon originates from spin-orbit coupling. In general, stronger spin-orbit coupling favours larger SHEs but shorter spin relaxation times and diffusion lengths. However, correlated magnetic materials often do not support large SHEs. Achieving large SHEs, long-range spin transport and magnetism simultaneously in a single material is attractive for spintronics applications but has remained a challenge. Here we demonstrate a giant intrinsic SHE coexisting with ferromagnetism in AB-stacked MoTe2/WSe2 moiré bilayers by direct magneto-optical imaging. Under moderate electrical currents with density <1 A m-1, we observe spin accumulation on transverse sample edges that nearly saturates the spin density. We also demonstrate long-range spin Hall transport and efficient non-local spin accumulation that is limited only by the device size (about 10 µm). The gate dependence shows that the giant SHE occurs only near the interaction-driven Chern insulating state. At low temperatures, it emerges after the quantum anomalous Hall breakdown. Our results demonstrate moiré engineering of Berry curvature and electronic correlation for potential spintronics applications.

Isotropic Spin Hall Effect in an Epitaxial Ferromagnet.

We report the observation of the isotropic spin Hall effect in a ferromagnet. We show that the spin Hall effect in an epitaxially grown Fe_{3}Si generates a sizable spin current with a spin direction that is noncollinear with the magnetization. Furthermore, we find that the spin Hall current is independent of the relative orientation between its spin direction and the magnetization; the spin Hall effect is isotropic. This observation demonstrates that the intrinsically generated transverse spin component is protected from dephasing, providing fundamental insights into the generation and transport of spin currents in ferromagnets.

Manipulation of spin–orbit torque and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction by varying Mn concentration in Pt1-xMnx/Co bilayer

Reducing critical current density (JC) of current-driven magnetization switching via power-efficient spin–orbit torque (SOT) is a key challenge in spin-based memory and logic devices. The Pt1-xMnx alloy shows prospect for enhancing the damping-like SOT efficiency (ξDL) while maintaining relatively low resistivity and power consumption. In this work, we investigated the Mn concentration x dependence of ξDL in Pt1-xMnx/Co bilayer and observed a nonmonotonic variation with the maximum ξDL ≈ 0.25 appearing around x = 0.2. The increase of the Pt1-xMnx layer resistivity is the main contribution to the enhancement of ξDL. Mn atoms doped in Pt not only modulate ξDL originating from the spin Hall effect of the Pt1-xMnx layer, but also affect the interfacial phenomena at the Pt1-xMnx/Co interface. We find that the related interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is also tunable by x with the maximum appearing around x = 0.15. The significantly reduced JC of Pt1-xMnx/Co bilayer is mainly due to the enhancement of ξDL and the attenuation of effective perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy density. Meanwhile, Pt1-xMnx/Co bilayer maintains low power consumption and necessary thermal stability. Our work highlights the potential of alloying Pt with Mn as a valuable means to achieve high-performance SOT spintronic devices.

A Comprehensive Study of Temperature and Its Effects in SOT-MRAM Devices.

We employ a fully three-dimensional model coupling magnetization, charge, spin, and temperature dynamics to study temperature effects in spin-orbit torque (SOT) magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM). SOTs are included by considering spin currents generated through the spin Hall effect. We scale the magnetization parameters with the temperature. Numerical experiments show several time scales for temperature dynamics. The relatively slow temperature increase, after a rapid initial temperature rise, introduces an incubation time to the switching. Such a behavior cannot be reproduced with a constant temperature model. Furthermore, the critical SOT switching voltage is significantly reduced by the increased temperature. We demonstrate this phenomenon for switching of field-free SOT-MRAM. In addition, with an external-field-assisted switching, the critical SOT voltage shows a parabolic decrease with respect to the voltage applied across the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) of the SOT-MRAM cell, in agreement with recent experimental data.

An optimized growth model for Fe/Pt heteroepitaxy by computational and structural studies

Thin layers of ferromagnetic/non-magnetic bimetallic heterostructures have become the focal point of spintronics, primarily due to their capacity to convert spin to charge current, leveraging the spin- and inverse spin Hall effects. However, the interfacial properties and morphologies can significantly influence this conversion. Hence, we employed molecular dynamics calculations to model the construction of the Fe/Pt interface at various bilayer growth temperatures and Pt deposition rates. We then experimentally evaluated the modeling using x-ray methods to resolve the chemical and structural state of the interface. The calculations revealed moderate diffusive phenomena between the adjacent layers and an interfacial roughness of less than 1 nm, consistent with the experimental observations. In cases where plastic relaxation of the Fe/Pt interface is insufficient, lattice deformation is mitigated by a local pseudomorphic growth caused by transformation of the Pt crystal symmetry. Additionally, interfacial planar defects may emerge as a complementary stress-relieving mechanism to misfit dislocations. By combining the experimental and computational findings, we propose optimized growth conditions for an “ideal” Fe/Pt interface, which could serve as a useful tool to control the efficiency of spin-to-charge conversion.

Antiferromagnetic magnon spintronic based on nonreciprocal and nondegenerated ultra-fast spin-waves in the canted antiferromagnet α-Fe2O3.

Spin-waves in antiferromagnets hold the prospects for the development of faster, less power-hungry electronics and promising physics based on spin superfluids and coherent magnon condensates. For both these perspectives, addressing electrically coherent antiferromagnetic spin-waves is of importance, a prerequisite that has been so far elusive, because, unlike ferromagnets, antiferromagnets couple weakly to radiofrequency fields. Here, we demonstrate the detection of ultra-fast nonreciprocal spin-waves in the dipolar exchange regime of a canted antiferromagnet using both inductive and spintronic transducers. Using time-of-flight spin-wave spectroscopy on hematite (α-Fe2O3), we find that the magnon wave packets can propagate as fast as 20 kilometers/second for reciprocal bulk spin-wave modes and up to 6 kilometers/second for surface spin-waves propagating parallel to the antiferromagnetic Néel vector. We lastly achieve efficient electrical detection of nonreciprocal spin-wave transport using nonlocal inverse spin-Hall effects. The electrical detection of coherent nonreciprocal antiferromagnetic spin-waves paves the way for the development of antiferromagnetic and altermagnet-based magnonic devices.

High-Performance Plasmonic Sensor Based on Silver, Gold and Graphene Layers for Cancer Cell Detection at 632.8 nm Wavelength with Photonic Spin Hall Effect

High-Performance Plasmonic Sensor Based on Silver, Gold and Graphene Layers for Cancer Cell Detection at 632.8 nm Wavelength with Photonic Spin Hall Effect

Analogue of Charge Conjugation in the Optical Spin Hall Effect

Analogue of Charge Conjugation in the Optical Spin Hall Effect

Quantum oscillations of transport coefficients and capacitance: A manifestation of the spin Hall effect

Quantum oscillations of transport coefficients and capacitance: A manifestation of the spin Hall effect

Evolution of spin Hall mechanism and spin–orbit torque in ( α , β ) phase tantalum film

We investigate the spin Hall mechanism and spin–orbit torque (SOT) efficiency in Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructures with varying Ta crystalline phases. The Ta crystalline phase, specifically (α + β) mixed phase and β phase, is achieved by controlling the sputtering power (PTa) during Ta deposition. We observe a negative temperature coefficient of resistivity for Ta deposited at PTa ≥ 40 W, which corresponds to the β phase of Ta. Our phenomenological scaling law analysis reveals a significant contribution of skew scattering to the spin Hall effect (SHE) in β phase Ta. Furthermore, we conduct a comprehensive comparison of the critical switching current density of Ta (JCTa) and power consumption between (α + β) Ta and β Ta phases. Despite β Ta exhibiting higher resistivity, its power consumption remains lower than that of (α + β) Ta phase, suggesting that β Ta is a superior spin–orbit material. Our findings serve as a valuable reference for manipulating SOT and SHE mechanisms through crystalline phase engineering.

Low Power and Fully Nonvolatile Full-Adder Based on STT-SHE-MRAM

Currently, static circuit power is becoming a major concern, dominating the total power consumption due to the scaling down of CMOS technology. The smaller sizes drastically affect the leakage current, which integrated circuit designers attempt to overcome this issue. Hence, several methods and technologies have been proposed to prevail this phenomenon. One of these methods is using memory structures in logic designs. A Hybrid MTJ/CMOS circuit is one of these promising techniques to design low-power nonvolatile circuits with power gating ability and low overhead for reconfigurable possibilities. In this paper, we have proposed a fully nonvolatile, low-power Full-Adder based on MTJs that uses the spin transfer torque method assisted by the spin hall effect. Simulation results of these designs by HSPICE show that they can work fast with low-power consumption compared to other state-of-the-art nonvolatile full-adders.

The Ground State of Epitaxial Germanene on Ag(111).

Two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattices beyond graphene, such as germanene, appear very promising due to their outstanding electronic properties, such as the quantum spin Hall effects. While there have been many claims of germanene monolayers up to now, no experimental evidence of a honeycomb structure has been provided up to now for these grown monolayers. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD), and density functional theory, we have elucidated the Ge-induced reconstruction on Ag(111). We demonstrate that a powerful algorithm combining SXRD with STM allows us to solve a giant surface reconstruction with more than a hundred atoms per unit cell. Its extensive unit cell indeed consists of 98 2-fold or 3-fold coordinated Ge atoms, forming a periodic arrangement of pentagons, hexagons, and heptagons, with the inclusion of six dispersed Ag atoms. By analogy, we show that the reconstruction obtained by segregation of Ge through an epitaxial Ag/Ge(111) film possesses a similar structure, i.e., Ge pentagons/hexagons/heptagons with a few Ag atoms. Such an organization is more stable than that of pure Ge monolayers and can be assigned to the ground state of epitaxial germanene.

Spin angular momentum and angular harmonics spectrum of two-order polarization vortices at the tight focus

We investigate the spin angular momentum (SAM) of two-order cylindrical vector beams at the tight focus. Such beams are a generalization of the conventional cylindrical vector beams since the transverse field components on the Cartesian axes have different polarization orders. Using the Richards-Wolf approximation, we derive an expression for the longitudinal component of the SAM density distribution. We show that if the polarization indices are of different parity then, an optical spin Hall effect arises at the tight focus, meaning that alternating areas with positive and negative SAM are originated although the initial light field is linearly polarized. We study the angular harmonics spectrum of all the components of the focused light field and determine the predominant angular harmonics. Then, neglecting the insignificant harmonics, we define the shape of the longitudinal component of the SAM density distribution and demonstrate the possibility of generating a focal SAM distribution where the areas with positive and negative SAM reside on a circle as alternating pairs or separated into different half-circles.

Chiral topological metals with multiple types of quasiparticle fermions and large spin Hall effect in the SrGePt family materials

Chiral topological metals with multiple types of quasiparticle fermions and large spin Hall effect in the SrGePt family materials

Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Two-Monolayer-Thick InN/InGaN Coupled Multiple Quantum Wells.

In this study, we present a theoretical study of the quantum spin Hall effect in InN/InGaN coupled multiple quantum wells with the individual well widths equal to two atomic monolayers. We consider triple and quadruple quantum wells in which the In content in the interwell barriers is greater than or equal to the In content in the external barriers. To calculate the electronic subbands in these nanostructures, we use the eight-band k∙p Hamiltonian, assuming that the effective spin-orbit interaction in InN is negative, which represents the worst-case scenario for achieving a two-dimensional topological insulator. For triple quantum wells, we find that when the In contents of the external and interwell barriers are the same and the widths of the internal barriers are equal to two monolayers, a topological insulator with a bulk energy gap of 0.25 meV can appear. Increasing the In content in the interwell barriers leads to a significant increase in the bulk energy gap of the topological insulator, reaching about 0.8 meV. In these structures, the topological insulator can be achieved when the In content in the external barriers is about 0.64, causing relatively low strain in quantum wells and making the epitaxial growth of these structures within the range of current technology. Using the effective 2D Hamiltonian, we study the edge states in strip structures containing topological triple quantum wells. We demonstrate that the opening of the gap in the spectrum of the edge states caused by decreasing the width of the strip has an oscillatory character regardless of whether the pseudospin-mixing elements of the effective Hamiltonian are omitted or taken into account. The strength of the finite size effect in these structures is several times smaller than that in HgTe/HgCdTe and InAs/GaSb/AlSb topological insulators. Therefore, its influence on the quantum spin Hall effect is negligible in strips with a width larger than 150 nm, unless the temperature at which electron transport is measured is less than 1 mK. In the case of quadruple quantum wells, we find the topological insulator phase only when the In content in the interwell barriers is larger than in the external barriers. We show that in these structures, a topological insulator with a bulk energy gap of 0.038 meV can be achieved when the In content in the external barriers is about 0.75. Since this value of the bulk energy gap is very small, quadruple quantum wells are less useful for realizing a measurable quantum spin Hall system, but they are still attractive for achieving a topological phase transition and a nonlocal topological semimetal phase.

High sensitivity gas sensor based on surface exciton polariton enhanced photonic spin Hall effect.

In this paper, the sub-wavelength transverse displacement of photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) is significantly enhanced by the surface exciton polariton (SEP) for application in gas sensing. The transverse displacement of 14.4 times the wavelength of incident light is achieved with the SEP enhanced PSHE, which is about 3 times that of surface plasmon resonance enhanced PSHE. A gas sensor based on SEP enhanced PSHE is proposed for the detection of SO2, and the refractive index sensitivity of 6320.4 µm/RIU is obtained in the refractive index range from 1.00027281 to 1.00095981. These results undoubtedly demonstrate SEP to be a promising mechanism for PSHE enhancement, and open up new opportunities for highly sensitive gas sensing, biosensing, and chemical sensing.

Anomalous and inverse spin Hall effects in Pt1-xBix/(YLuBiCa)3(FeGa)5O12 heterojunction

A garnet film with spatial magnetic moment distribution has been grown on gadolinium gallium garnet wafer (111) crystal plane, by regulating liquid phase epitaxial growth parameters and sub-lattice ions substitution, then 10 nm Pt1-xBix (x = 2% – 8%) alloy film was deposited on the surface of the garnet films. A new spin heterojunction Pt1-xBix/(YLuBiCa)3(FeGa)5O12 with both inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) and anomalous spin Hall effect (ASHE) was designed and fabricated. The spatial magnetic moment distribution of the heterojunction has been found, which lays the foundation of the spin heterojunction for multiple spin injection with both spin electron reverse injection and anomalous injection. Because Bi ions doping and substitution increases the spin–orbit torque and the mixed conductance of the heterojunction, an oblique ASHE voltage curve and an enhanced ISHE voltage curve with double resonance peak were observed. It was confirmed that the injection of spinning electron into the heterojunction can be enhanced with both the ISHE and ASHE effect by adjusting the spatial magnetic moment distribution, which is a foundation for the future application of spin wave 3D antenna and other devices.

Rational design of quantum spin Hall phase in type-III van der Waals heterostructures

Van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) are effective platforms for exploring various attractive topological phases. Here, based on the low-energy effective k·p model, we propose that the type-III vdWHs, which were previously considered as only belonging to trivial metallic phases, can realize the nontrivial quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect. We reveal that the band inversion of such a QSH phase is attributed to the band alignment of momentum space matching, i.e., the conduction band minimum and valence band maximum located at the same point in momentum space near the Fermi level. Moreover, using first-principles calculations, we show that the Mg(OH)2/Ga2O2 heterobilayer, a typical type-III vdWH with high thermodynamic stability, is an ideal candidate for achieving our strategy. We further calculate the helical gapless edge states and quantized spin Hall conductance, which are visible inside the global bandgap, thus facilitating the experimental observation. Our work offers a promising pathway for realizing the QSH phase in natural materials.