No Arabic abstract
We report direct electrical detection of spin pumping, using a lateral normal metal/ferromagnet/normal metal device, where a single ferromagnet in ferromagnetic resonance pumps spin polarized electrons into the normal metal, resulting in spin accumulation. The resulting backflow of spin current into the ferromagnet generates a d.c. voltage due to the spin dependent conductivities of the ferromagnet. By comparing different contact materials (Al and /or Pt), we find, in agreement with theory, that the spin related properties of the normal metal dictate the magnitude of the d.c. voltage.
We describe electrical detection of spin pumping in metallic nanostructures. In the spin pumping effect, a precessing ferromagnet attached to a normal-metal acts as a pump of spin-polarized current, giving rise to a spin accumulation. The resulting spin accumulation induces a backflow of spin current into the ferromagnet and generates a dc voltage due to the spin dependent conductivities of the ferromagnet. The magnitude of such voltage is proportional to the spin-relaxation properties of the normal-metal. By using platinum as a contact material we observe, in agreement with theory, that the voltage is significantly reduced as compared to the case when aluminum was used. Furtheremore, the effects of rectification between the circulating rf currents and the magnetization precession of the ferromagnet are examined. Most significantly, we show that using an improved layout device geometry these effects can be minimized.
Microwave assisted magnetization reversal has been investigated in a bilayer system of Pt/ferromagnet by detecting a change in the polarity of the spin pumping signal. The reversal process is studied in two material systems, Pt/CoFeB and Pt/NiFe, for different aspect ratios. The onset of the switching behavior is indicated by a sharp transition in the spin pumping voltage. At a threshold value of the external field, the switching process changes from partial to full reversal with increasing microwave power. The proposed method provides a simple way to detect microwave assisted magnetization reversal.
We present a theoretical model that describes electrical spin-detection at a ferromagnet/semiconductor interface. We show that the sensitivity of the spin detector has strong bias dependence which, in the general case, is dramatically different from that of the tunneling current spin polarization. We show that this bias dependence originates from two distinct physical mechanisms: 1) the bias dependence of tunneling current spin polarization, which is of microscopic origin and depends on the specific properties of the interface, and 2) the macroscopic electron spin transport properties in the semiconductor. Numerical results show that the magnitude of the voltage signal can be tuned over a wide range from the second effect which suggests a universal method for enhancing electrical spin-detection sensitivity in ferromagnet/semiconductor tunnel contacts. Using first-principles calculations we examine the particular case of a Fe/GaAs Schottky tunnel barrier and find very good agreement with experiment. We also predict the bias dependence of the voltage signal for a Fe/MgO/GaAs tunnel structure spin detector.
The dc voltage obtained from the inverse spin Hall effect (iSHE) due to spin pumping in ferromagnet/normal-metal (NM) bilayers can be unintentionally superimposed with magnetoresistive rectification of ac charge currents in the ferromagnetic layer. We introduce a geometry in which these spurious rectification voltages vanish while the iSHE voltage is maximized. In this geometry, a quantitative study of the dc iSHE is performed in a broad frequency range for Permalloy/NM multilayers with NM={Pt, Ta, Cu/Au, Cu/Pt}. The experimentally recorded voltages can be fully ascribed to the iSHE due to spin pumping. Furthermore we measure a small iSHE voltage in single CoFe thin films.
We systematically measured the DC voltage V_ISH induced by spin pumping together with the inverse spin Hall effect in ferromagnet/platinum bilayer films. In all our samples, comprising ferromagnetic 3d transition metals, Heusler compounds, ferrite spinel oxides, and magnetic semiconductors, V_ISH invariably has the same polarity. V_ISH furthermore scales with the magnetization precession cone angle with a universal prefactor, irrespective of the magnetic properties, the charge carrier transport mechanism or type. These findings quantitatively corroborate the present theoretical understanding of spin pumping in combination with the inverse spin Hall effect.