No Arabic abstract
Heat generated by spin currents in spintronics-based devices is typically much less than that generated by charge current flows in conventional electronic devices. However, the conventional approaches for excitation of spin currents based on spin-pumping and spin Hall effect are limited in efficiency which restricts their application for viable spintronic devices. We propose a novel type of photonic-crystal (PC) based structures for efficient and tunable optically-induced spin current generation via the Spin Seebeck and inverse spin Hall effects. It is experimentally demonstrated that optical surface modes localized at the PC surface covered by ferromagnetic layer and materials with giant spin-orbit coupling (SOC) notably increase the efficiency of the optically-induced spin current generation and provides its tunability by modifying light wavelength or angle of incidence. Up to 100% of the incident light power can be transferred to heat within the SOC layer and, therefore, to spin current. Importantly, high efficiency becomes accessible even for ultra-thin SOC layers. Moreover, surface patterning of the PC-based spintronic nanostructure allows local generation of spin currents at the pattern scales rather than diameter of the laser beam.
We study the nonlocal spin and charge current generation in a finite metallic element on the surface of magnetic insulators such as tcb{yttrium iron garnet} due to the absorption of the magnetic surface plasmon (MSP). Whereas a surface plasmon is completely reflected by a metal, tcb{an} MSP tcb{can be} absorbed tcb{due to the absence of backward states}. The tcb{injection of} MSP generates a voltage in the longitudinal direction parallel to the wave vector, tcb{with the voltage} proportional to input power. If the metal is a ferromagnet, a spin current can also be tcb{induced} in the longitudinal direction. Our tcb{results provide a way to improve upon} integrated circuits of spintronics and spin wave logic devices.
We suggest a new practical scheme for the direct detection of pure spin current by using the two-color Faraday rotation of optical quantum interference process (QUIP) in a semiconductor system. We demonstrate theoretically that the Faraday rotation of QUIP depends sensitively on the spin orientation and wave vector of the carriers, and can be tuned by the relative phase and the polarization direction of the $omega$ and $2omega$ laser beams. By adjusting these parameters, the magnitude and direction of the spin current can be detected.
We perform 3D micromagnetic simulations of current-driven magnetization dynamics in nanoscale exchange biased spin-valves that take account of (i) back action of spin-transfer torque on the pinned layer, (ii) non-linear damping and (iii) random thermal torques. Our simulations demonstrate that all these factors significantly impact the current-driven dynamics and lead to a better agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental results. In particular, we observe that, at a non-zero temperature and a sub-critical current, the magnetization dynamics exhibits nonstationary behaviour in which two independent persistent oscillatory modes are excited which compete for the angular momentum supplied by spin-polarized current. Our results show that this multi-mode behaviour can be induced by combined action of thermal and spin transfer torques.
Spin current injection from sputtered yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films into an adjacent platinum layer has been investigated by means of the spin pumping and the spin Seebeck effects. Films with a thickness of 83 and 96 nanometers were fabricated by on-axis magnetron rf sputtering at room temperature and subsequent post-annealing. From the frequency dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, the damping constant has been estimated to be $(7.0pm1.0)times 10^{-4}$. Magnitudes of the spin current generated by the spin pumping and the spin Seebeck effect are of the same order as values for YIG films prepared by liquid phase epitaxy. The efficient spin current injection can be ascribed to a good YIG|Pt interface, which is confirmed by the large spin-mixing conductance $(2.0pm0.2)times 10^{18}$ m$^{-2}$.
The engineered spin structures recently built and measured in scanning tunneling microscope experiments are calculated using density functional theory. By determining the precise local structure around the surface impurities, we find the Mn atoms can form molecular structures with the binding surface, behaving like surface molecular magnets. The spin structures are confirmed to be antiferromagnetic, and the exchange couplings are calculated within 8% of the experimental values simply by collinear-spin GGA+U calculations. We can also explain why the exchange couplings significantly change with different impurity binding sites from the determined local structure. The bond polarity is studied by calculating the atomic charges with and without the Mn adatoms.