No Arabic abstract
Due to the difficulty to grow high quality semiconductors on ferromagnetic metals, the study of spin diffusion transport in Si was only limited to lateral geometry devices. In this work, by using ultra-high 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 2mu m 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 by 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 establish the necessary out-of-equilibrium spin-population in Si under the spin-pumping action.
Evidences of pure spin current are indistinguishable from those of many parasitic effects. Proper choices of materials and methods are essential for exploring pure spin current phenomena and devices.
Optical control of electronic spins is the basis for ultrafast spintronics: circularly polarized light in combination with spin-orbit coupling of the electronic states allows for spin manipulation in condensed matter. However, the conventional approach is limited to spin orientation along one particular orientation that is dictated by the direction of photon propagation. Plasmonics opens new capabilities, allowing one to tailor the light polarization at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate ultrafast optical excitation of electron spin on femtosecond time scales via plasmon to exciton spin conversion. By time-resolving the THz spin dynamics in a hybrid (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well structure covered with a metallic grating, we unambiguously determine the orientation of the photoexcited electron spins which is locked to the propagation direction of surface plasmon-polaritons. Using the spin of the incident photons as additional degree of freedom, one can orient the photoexcited electron spin at will in a two-dimensional plane.
We experimentally show evidence for the presence of spin accumulation in localized states at ferromagnet-silicon interfaces, detected by electrical Hanle effect measurements in CoFe/$n^{+}$-Si/$n$-Si lateral devices. By controlling the measurement temperature, we can clearly observe marked changes in the spin-accumulation signals at low temperatures, at which the electron transport across the interface changes from the direct tunneling to the two-step one via the localized states. We discuss in detail the difference in the spin accumulation between in the Si channel and in the localized states.
The use of the spin Hall effect and its inverse to electrically detect and manipulate dynamic spin currents generated via ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) driven spin pumping has enabled the investigation of these dynamically injected currents across a wide variety of ferromagnetic materials. However, while this approach has proven to be an invaluable diagnostic for exploring the spin pumping process it requires strong spin-orbit coupling, thus substantially limiting the materials basis available for the detector/channel material (primarily Pt, W and Ta). Here, we report FMR driven spin pumping into a weak spin-orbit channel through the measurement of a spin accumulation voltage in a Si-based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) heterostructure. This alternate experimental approach enables the investigation of dynamic spin pumping in a broad class of materials with weak spin-orbit coupling and long spin lifetime while providing additional information regarding the phase evolution of the injected spin ensemble via Hanle-based measurements of the effective spin lifetime.
Spin pumping by ferromagnetic resonance is one of the most common technique to determine spin hall angles, Edelstein lengths or spin diffusion lengths of a large variety of materials. In recent years, rising concerns have appeared regarding the interpretation of these experiments, underlining that the signal could arise purely from thermoelectric effects, rather than from coherent spin pumping. Here, we propose a method to evaluate the presence or absence of thermal effects in spin pumping signals, by combining bolometry and spin pumping by ferromagnetic resonance measurements, and comparing their timescale. Using a cavity to perform the experiments on PtPermalloy and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3Pt samples, we conclude on the absence of any measurable thermoelectric contribution such as the spin Seebeck and anomalous Nernst effects at resonance