No Arabic abstract
Spin-charge conversion via spin-orbit interaction is one of the core concepts in the current spintronics research. The efficiency of the interconversion between charge and spin current is estimated based on Berry curvature of Bloch wavefunction in the linear-response regime. Beyond the linear regime, nonlinear spin-charge conversion in the higher-order electric field terms has recently been demonstrated in noncentrosymmetric materials with nontrivial spin texture in the momentum space. Here we report the observation of the nonlinear charge-spin conversion in a nominally centrosymmetric oxide material, SrIrO3, by breaking inversion symmetry at the interface. A large second-order magnetoelectric coefficient is observed at room temperature because of the antisymmetric spin-orbit interaction at the interface of Dirac semimetallic bands, which is subject to the symmetry constraint of the substrates. Our study suggests that nonlinear spin-charge conversion can be induced in many materials with strong spin-orbit interaction at the interface by breaking the local inversion symmetry to give rise to spin splitting in otherwise spin degenerate systems.
Spin orbit coupling provides a mechanism to lock the momentum of electron to its spin degree, recent years was revealed to be essential in arousing many novel physical behaviors. SrIrO3 is a typical metallic member of the strong spin orbit coupling iridate family. Its orthorhombic phase was confirmed as a particular spin orbit coupling assistant electron correlated semimetal with small electron and hole pockets, and was supposed to host versatile topological phases, with prospect of opening a new topological matter field based on oxides. The existing experiments have demonstrated that orthorhombic SrIrO3 can be easily synthesized at two dimensional scale films under the substrate lattice constraint, and the films display Fermi-liquid behavior in high temperature and generally two dimensional weak localization resulted metal insulator transition. The properties of orthorhombic SrIrO3 film are sensitive to the rotation and tilting angle, as well as the interlayer coupling of the IrO6 octahedras, consequently can be tuned through substrate strain engineering and size scale. For example, the film was approached a state similar to Sr2IrO4 at the ultrathin limit to several unit cell, becoming a canted antiferromagnetic semiconductor/insulator. The existing knowledges suggest urgent demands of researches on the superlattices constructed with orthorhombic SrIrO3, for further understanding the evolution mechanism of the electron structure, and so the relevant magnetic state and topological phases in the orthorhombic SrIrO3 and its family.
We investigate the spin state of LaCoO3 using state-of-the-art photoemission spectroscopy and ab initio band structure calculations. The GGA+U calculations provide a good description of the ground state for the experimentally estimated value of electron correlation strength, U. In addition to the correlation effect, spin-orbit interaction is observed to play a significant role in the case of intermediate spin and high spin configurations. The comparison of the calculated Co 3d and O 2p partial density of states with the experimental valence band spectra indicates that at room temperature, Co has dominant intermediate spin state configuration and that the high spin configuration may not be significant at this temperature. The lineshape of the La 5p and O 2s core level spectra could be reproduced well within these ab initio calculations.
Efficient and versatile spin-to-charge current conversion is crucial for the development of spintronic applications, which strongly rely on the ability to electrically generate and detect spin currents. In this context, the spin Hall effect has been widely studied in heavy metals with strong spin-orbit coupling. While the high crystal symmetry in these materials limits the conversion to the orthogonal configuration, unusual configurations are expected in low symmetry transition metal dichalcogenide semimetals, which could add flexibility to the electrical injection and detection of pure spin currents. Here, we report the observation of spin-to-charge conversion in MoTe$_2$ flakes, which are stacked in graphene lateral spin valves. We detect two distinct contributions arising from the conversion of two different spin orientations. In addition to the conventional conversion where the spin polarization is orthogonal to the charge current, we also detect a conversion where the spin polarization and the charge current are parallel. Both contributions, which could arise either from bulk spin Hall effect or surface Edelstein effect, show large efficiencies comparable to the best spin Hall metals and topological insulators. Our finding enables the simultaneous conversion of spin currents with any in-plane spin polarization in one single experimental configuration.
We report on the first systematic study of spin transport in bilayer graphene (BLG) as a function of mobility, minimum conductivity, charge density and temperature. The spin relaxation time $tau_s$ scales inversely with the mobility $mu$ of BLG samples both at room temperature and at low temperature. This indicates the importance of Dyakonov - Perel spin scattering in BLG. Spin relaxation times of up to 2 ns are observed in samples with the lowest mobility. These times are an order of magnitude longer than any values previously reported for single layer graphene (SLG). We discuss the role of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that could lead to the dominance of Dyakonov-Perel spin scattering in BLG. In comparison to SLG, significant changes in the density dependence of $tau_s$ are observed as a function of temperature.
We report spin-to-charge and charge-to-spin conversion at room temperature in heterostructure devices that interface an archetypal Dirac semimetal, Cd3As2, with a metallic ferromagnet, Ni0.80Fe0.20 (permalloy). The spin-charge interconversion is detected by both spin torque ferromagnetic resonance and ferromagnetic resonance driven spin pumping. Analysis of the symmetric and anti-symmetric components of the mixing voltage in spin torque ferromagnetic resonance and the frequency and power dependence of the spin pumping signal show that the behavior of these processes is consistent with previously reported spin-charge interconversion mechanisms in heavy metals, topological insulators, and Weyl semimetals. We find that the efficiency of spin-charge interconversion in Cd3As2/permalloy bilayers can be comparable to that in heavy metals. We discuss the underlying mechanisms by comparing our results with first principles calculations.