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Spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) has been observed in Pt/NiO/Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) heterostructures with characteristics very different from those in Pt/YIG. We show that the SMR in Pt/NiO/YIG strongly correlates with spin conductance, both sharing very strong temperature dependence due to antiferromagnetic magnons and spin fluctuation. This phenomenon indicates that spin current generated by spin Hall effect in the Pt transmits through the insulating NiO and is reflected from the NiO/YIG interface. Inverted SMR has been observed below a temperature which increases with the NiO thickness, suggesting spin-flip reflection from the antiferromagnetic NiO exchange coupled with the YIG.
We report large enhancement of thermally injected spin current in normal metal (NM)/antiferromagnet(AF)/yttrium iron garnet(YIG), where a thin AF insulating layer of NiO or CoO can enhance spin current from YIG to a NM by up to a factor of 10. The spin current enhancement in NM/AF/YIG, with a pronounced maximum near the Neel temperature of the thin AF layer, has been found to scale linearly with the spin-mixing conductance at the NM/YIG interface for NM = 3d, 4d, and 5d metals. Calculations of spin current enhancement and spin mixing conductance are qualitatively consistent with the experimental results.
The ability to perform efficient electrical spin injection from ferromagnetic metals into two-dimensional semiconductor crystals based on transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers is a prerequisite for spintronic and valleytronic devices using these materials. Here, the hcp Co(0001)/MoS2 interface electronic structure is investigated by first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory. In the lowest energy configuration of the hybrid system after optimization of the atomic coordinates, we show that interface sulfur atoms are covalently bound to one, two or three cobalt atoms. A decrease of the Co atom spin magnetic moment is observed at the interface, together with a small magnetization of S atoms. Mo atoms also hold small magnetic moments which can take positive as well as negative values. The charge transfers due to covalent bonding between S and Co atoms at the interface have been calculated for majority and minority spin electrons and the connections between these interface charge transfers and the induced magnetic properties of the MoS2 layer are discussed. Band structure and density of states of the hybrid system are calculated for minority and majority spin electrons, taking into account spin-orbit coupling. We demonstrate that MoS2 bound to the Co contact becomes metallic due to hybridization between Co d and S p orbitals. For this metallic phase of MoS2, a spin polarization at the Fermi level of 16 % in absolute value is calculated, that could allow spin injection into the semiconducting MoS2 monolayer channel. Finally, the symmetry of the majority and minority spin electron wave functions at the Fermi level in the Co-bound metallic phase of MoS2 and the orientation of the border between the metallic and semiconducting phases of MoS2 are investigated, and their impact on spin injection into the MoS2 channel is discussed.
A magnon Nernst effect, an antiferromagnetic analogue of the magnon Hall effect in ferromagnetic insulators, has been studied experimentally for a layered antiferromagnetic insulator MnPS3 in contact with two Pt strips. Thermoelectric voltage in the Pt strips grown on MnPS3 single crystals exhibits non-monotonic temperature dependence at low temperatures, which cannot be explained by electronic origins in Pt but can be ascribed to the inverse spin Hall voltage induced by a magnon Nernst effect. Control of antiferromagnetic domains in the MnPS3 crystal by magnetoelectric cooling is found to modulate the low-temperature thermoelectric voltage in Pt, which corroborates the emergence of the magnon Nernst effect in Pt|MnPS3 hybrid structures.
Electrical manipulation of emergent phenomena due to nontrivial band topology is a key to realize next-generation technology using topological protection. A Weyl semimetal is a three-dimensional gapless system that hosts Weyl fermions as low-energy quasiparticles. It exhibits various exotic phenomena such as large anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and chiral anomaly, which have robust properties due to the topologically protected Weyl nodes. To manipulate such phenomena, the magnetic version of Weyl semimetals would be useful as a magnetic texture may provide a handle for controlling the locations of Weyl nodes in the Brillouin zone. Moreover, given the prospects of antiferromagnetic (AF) spintronics for realizing high-density devices with ultrafast operation, it would be ideal if one could electrically manipulate an AF Weyl metal. However, no report has appeared on the electrical manipulation of a Weyl metal. Here we demonstrate the electrical switching of a topological AF state and its detection by AHE at room temperature. In particular, we employ a polycrystalline thin film of the AF Weyl metal Mn$_3$Sn, which exhibits zero-field AHE. Using the bilayer device of Mn$_3$Sn and nonmagnetic metals (NMs), we find that an electrical current density of $sim 10^{10}$-$10^{11}$ A/m$^2$ in NMs induces the magnetic switching with a large change in Hall voltage, and besides, the current polarity along a bias field and the sign of the spin Hall angle $theta_{rm SH}$ of NMs [Pt ($theta_{rm SH} > 0$), Cu($theta_{rm SH} sim 0$), W ($theta_{rm SH} < 0$)] determines the sign of the Hall voltage. Notably, the electrical switching in the antiferromagnet is made using the same protocol as the one used for ferromagnetic metals. Our observation may well lead to another leap in science and technology for topological magnetism and AF spintronics.
A longstanding goal of research in semiconductor spintronics is the ability to inject, modulate, and detect electron spin in a single device. A simple prototype consists of a lateral semiconductor channel with two ferromagnetic contacts, one of which serves as a source of spin-polarized electrons and the other as a detector. Based on work in analogous metallic systems, two important criteria have emerged for demonstrating electrical detection of spin transport. The first is the measurement of a non-equilibrium spin population using a non-local ferromagnetic detector through which no charge current flows. The potential at the detection electrode should be sensitive to the relative magnetizations of the detector and the source electrodes, a property referred to as the spin-valve effect. A second and more rigorous test is the existence of a Hanle effect, which is the modulation and suppression of the spin valve signal due to precession and dephasing in a transverse magnetic field. Here we report on the observation of both the spin valve and Hanle effects in lateral devices consisting of epitaxial Fe Schottky tunnel barrier contacts on an n-doped GaAs channel. The dependence on transverse magnetic field, temperature, and contact separation are in good agreement with a model incorporating spin drift and diffusion. Spin transport is detected for both directions of current flow through the source electrode. The sign of the electrical detection signal is found to vary with the injection current and is correlated with the spin polarization in the GaAs channel determined by optical measurements. These results therefore demonstrate a fully electrical scheme for spin injection, transport, and detection in a lateral semiconductor device.