No Arabic abstract
The effect of the AlOx barrier thickness on magnetic and morphological properties of Ta/Co/(AlOx)/Alq3/Si hybrid structures was systematically studied by means of atomic force microscopy, SQUID magnetometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). All used techniques pointed out that the barrier thickness of 2 nm is required to obtain a magnetically good cobalt layer on top of Alq3. 59Co NMR measurements revealed that the AlOx barrier gives rise to the formation of an interface layer with defective cobalt favouring growth of bulk cobalt with good magnetic properties.
Investigation of the spin Hall effect in gold has triggered increasing interest over the past decade, since gold combines the properties of a large bulk spin diffusion length and strong interfacial spin-orbit coupling. However, discrepancies between the values of the spin Hall angle of gold reported in the literature have brought into question the microscopic origin of the spin Hall effect in Au. Here, we investigate the thickness dependence of the spin-charge conversion efficiency in single Au films and ultrathin Au/Si multilayers by non-local transport and spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance measurements. We show that the spin-charge conversion efficiency is strongly enhanced in ultrathin Au/Si multilayers, reaching exceedingly large values of 0.99 +/- 0.34 when the thickness of the individual Au layers is scaled down to 2 nm. These findings reveal the coexistence of a strong interfacial spin-orbit coupling effect which becomes dominant in ultrathin Au, and bulk spin Hall effect with a relatively low bulk spin Hall angle of 0.012 +/- 0.005. Our experimental results suggest the key role of the Rashba-Edelstein effect in the spin-to-charge conversion in ultrathin Au.
Inorganic-organic interfaces are important for enhancing the power conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells through singlet exciton fission (SF). We elucidated the structure of the first monolayers of tetracene (Tc), a SF molecule, on hydrogen-passivated Si(111) [H-Si(111)] and hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) by combining near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. For samples grown at or below substrate temperatures of 265 K, the resulting ultrathin Tc films are dominated by almost upright-standing molecules. The molecular arrangement is very similar to the Tc bulk phase, with only slightly higher average angle between the conjugated molecular plane normal and the surface normal ($alpha$) around 77{deg}. Judging from carbon K-edge X-ray absorption spectra, the orientation of the Tc molecules are almost identical when grown on H-Si(111) and a-Si:H substrates as well as for (sub)mono- to several-monolayer coverages. Annealing to room temperature, however, changes the film structure towards a smaller $alpha$ of about 63{deg}. A detailed DFT-assisted analysis suggests that this structural transition is correlated with a lower packing density and requires a well-chosen amount of thermal energy. Therefore, we attribute the resulting structure to a distinct monolayer configuration that features less inclined, but still well-ordered molecules. The larger overlap with the substrate wavefunctions makes this arrangement attractive for an optimized interfacial electron transfer in SF-assisted silicon solar cells.
We present results of the analysis of Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) measurements of spin waves performed on ultrathin single and multirepeat CoFeB layers with adjacent heavy metal layers. From a detailed study of the spin-wave dispersion relation, we independently extract the Heisenberg exchange interaction (also referred to as symmetric exchange interaction), the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI, also referred to as antisymmetric exchange interaction), and the anisotropy field. We find a large DMI in CoFeB thin films adjacent to a Pt layer and nearly vanishing DMI for CoFeB films adjacent to a W layer. Furthermore, the residual influence of the dipolar interaction on the dispersion relation and on the evaluation of the Heisenberg exchange parameter is demonstrated. In addition, an experimental analysis of the DMI on the spin-wave lifetime is presented. All these parameters play a crucial role in designing skyrmionic or spin-orbitronic devices.
Wearable bioelectronics with emphasis on the research and development of advanced person-oriented biomedical devices have attracted immense interest in the last decade. Scientists and clinicians find it essential to utilize skin-worn smart tattoos for on-demand and ambulatory monitoring of an individuals vital signs. Here we report on the development of novel ultrathin platinum-based two-dimensional dichalcogenide (Pt-TMDs) based electronic tattoos as advanced building blocks of future wearable bioelectronics. We made these ultrathin electronic tattoos out of large-scale synthesized platinum diselenide (PtSe2) and platinum ditelluride (PtTe2) layered materials and used them for monitoring human physiological vital signs, such as the electrical activity of the heart and the brain, muscle contractions, eye movements, and temperature. We show that both materials can be used for these applications; yet, PtTe2 was found to be the most suitable choice due to its metallic structure. In terms of sheet resistance, skin-contact, and electrochemical impedance, PtTe2 outperforms state-of-the-art gold and graphene electronic tattoos and performs on par with medical-grade Ag/AgCl gel electrodes. The PtTe2 tattoos show four times lower impedance and almost 100 times lower sheet resistance compared to monolayer graphene tattoos. One of the possible prompt implications of the work is perhaps in the development of advanced human-machine interfaces. To display the application, we built a multi-tattoo system that can easily distinguish eye movement and identify the direction of an individuals sight.
We have studied the magnetic properties of multilayers composed of ferromagnetic metal Co and heavy metals with strong spin orbit coupling (Pt and Ir). Multilayers with symmetric (ABA stacking) and asymmetric (ABC stacking) structures are grown to study the effect of broken structural inversion symmetry. We compare the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) energy of symmetric Pt/Co/Pt, Ir/Co/Ir multilayers and asymmetric Pt/Co/Ir, Ir/Co/Pt multilayers. First, the interface contribution to the PMA is studied using the Co layer thickness dependence of the effective PMA energy. Comparison of the interfacial PMA between the Ir/Co/Pt, Pt/Co/Ir asymmetric structures and Pt/Co/Pt, Ir/Co/Ir symmetric structures indicate that the broken structural inversion symmetry induced PMA is small compared to the overall interfacial PMA. Second, we find the magnetic anisotropy field is significantly increased in multilayers when the ferromagnetic layers are antiferromagnetically coupled via interlayer exchange coupling (IEC). Macrospin model calculations can qualitatively account for the relation between the anisotropy field and the IEC. Among the structures studied, IEC is the largest for the asymmetric Ir/Co/Pt multilayers: the exchange coupling field exceeds 3 T and consequently, the anisotropy field approaches 10 T. Third, comparing the asymmetric Ir/Co/Pt and Pt/Co/Ir structures, we find the IEC and, to some extent, the interface PMA are stronger for the former than the latter. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism studies suggest that the proximity induced magnetization in Pt is larger for the Ir/Co/Pt multilayers than the inverted structure, which may partly account for the difference in the magnetic properties. These results show the intricate relation between PMA, IEC and the proximity induced magnetization that can be exploited to design artificial structures with unique magnetic characteristics.