No Arabic abstract
All-optical spin switching is a potential trailblazer for information storage and communication at an unprecedented fast rate and free of magnetic fields. However, the current wisdom is largely based on semiempirical models of effective magnetic fields and heat pulses, so it is difficult to provide high-speed design protocols for actual devices. Here, we carry out a massively parallel first-principles and model calculation for thirteen spin systems and magnetic layers, free of any effective field, to establish a simpler and alternative paradigm of laser-induced ultrafast spin reversal and to point out a path to a full-integrated photospintronic device. It is the interplay of the optical selection rule and sublattice spin orderings that underlines seemingly irreconcilable helicity-dependent/independent switchings. Using realistic experimental parameters, we predict that strong ferrimagnets, in particular, Laves phase C15 rare-earth alloys, meet the telecommunication energy requirement of 10 fJ, thus allowing a cost-effective subpicosecond laser to switch spin in the GHz region.
All-optical spin reversal presents a new opportunity for spin manipulations, free of a magnetic field. Most of all-optical-spin-reversal ferromagnets are found to have a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), but it has been unknown whether PMA is necessary for the spin reversal. Here we theoretically investigate magnetic thin films with either PMA or in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA). Our results show that the spin reversal in IMA systems is possible, but only with a longer laser pulse and within a narrow laser parameter region. The spin reversal does not show a strong helicity dependence where the left- and right-circularly polarized light lead to the identical results. By contrast, the spin reversal in PMA systems is robust, provided both the spin angular momentum and laser field are strong enough while the magnetic anisotropy itself is not too strong. This explains why experimentally the majority of all-optical spin-reversal samples are found to have strong PMA and why spins in Fe nanoparticles only cant out of plane. It is the laser-induced spin-orbit torque that plays a key role in the spin reversal. Surprisingly, the same spin-orbit torque results in laser-induced spin rectification in spin-mixed configuration, a prediction that can be tested experimentally. Our results clearly point out that PMA is essential to the spin reversal, though there is an opportunity for in-plane spin reversal.
A minority-spin resonant state at the Fe/GaAs(001) interface is predicted to reverse the spin polarization with voltage bias of electrons transmitted across this interface. Using a Greens function approach within the local spin density approximation we calculate spin-dependent current in a Fe/GaAs/Cu tunnel junction as a function of applied bias voltage. We find a change in sign of the spin polarization of tunneling electrons with bias voltage due to the interface minority-spin resonance. This result explains recent experimental data on spin injection in Fe/GaAs contacts and on tunneling magnetoresistance in Fe/GaAs/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions.
Inelastic scattering experiments are key methods for mapping the full dispersion of fundamental excitations of solids in the ground as well as non-equilibrium states. A quantitative analysis of inelastic scattering in terms of phonon excitations requires identifying the role of multi-phonon processes. Here, we develop an efficient first-principles methodology for calculating the {it all-phonon} quantum mechanical structure factor of solids. We demonstrate our method by obtaining unprecedented agreement between measurements and calculations of the diffuse diffraction patterns of black phosphorus, showing that multi-phonon scattering plays a substantial role. The present approach constitutes a pivotal advancement in the interpretation of static and time-resolved electron, X-ray, and neutron inelastic scattering data.
We report here non-collinear magnetic configurations in the Heusler alloys Ni2MnGa and Ni2MnAl which are interesting in the context of the magnetic shape memory effect. The total energies for different spin spirals are calculated and the ground state magnetic structures are identified. The calculated dispersion curves are used to estimate the Curie temperature which is found to be in good agreement with experiments. In addition, the variation of the magnetic moment as a function of the spiral structure is studied. Most of the variation is associated with Ni, and symmetry constraints relevant for the magnetization are identified. Based on the calculated results, the effect of the constituent atoms in determining the Curie temperature is discussed.
Details are presented of an efficient formalism for calculating transmission and reflection matrices from first principles in layered materials. Within the framework of spin density functional theory and using tight-binding muffin-tin orbitals, scattering matrices are determined by matching the wave-functions at the boundaries between leads which support well-defined scattering states and the scattering region. The calculation scales linearly with the number of principal layers N in the scattering region and as the cube of the number of atoms H in the lateral supercell. For metallic systems for which the required Brillouin zone sampling decreases as H increases, the final scaling goes as H^2*N. In practice, the efficient basis set allows scattering regions for which H^{2}*N ~ 10^6 to be handled. The method is illustrated for Co/Cu multilayers and single interfaces using large lateral supercells (up to 20x20) to model interface disorder. Because the scattering states are explicitly found, ``channel decomposition of the interface scattering for clean and disordered interfaces can be performed.