The spin Hall effect (SHE), induced by spin-orbit interaction in nonmagnetic materials, is one of the promising phenomena for conversion between charge and spin currents in spintronic devices. The spin Hall (SH) angle is the characteristic parameter
of this conversion. We have performed experiments of the conversion from spin into charge currents by the SHE in lateral spin valve structures. We present experimental results on the extrinsic SHEs induced by doping nonmagnetic metals, Cu or Ag, with impurities having a large spin-orbit coupling, Bi or Pb, as well as results on the intrinsic SHE of Au. The SH angle induced by Bi in Cu or Ag is negative and particularly large for Bi in Cu, 10 times larger than the intrinsic SH angle in Au. We also observed a large SH angle for CuPb but the SHE signal disappeared in a few days. Such an aging effect could be related to a fast mobility of Pb in Cu and has not been observed in CuBi alloys.
We study the extrinsic spin Hall effect induced by Ir impurities in Cu by injecting a pure spin current into a CuIr wire from a lateral spin valve structure. While no spin Hall effect is observed without Ir impurity, the spin Hall resistivity of CuIr
increases linearly with the impurity concentration. The spin Hall angle of CuIr, $(2.1 pm 0.6)$% throughout the concentration range between 1% and 12%, is practically independent of temperature. These results represent a clear example of predominant skew scattering extrinsic contribution to the spin Hall effect in a nonmagnetic alloy.
We report on the temperature dependence of the impurity-induced resonant state in Zn-doped Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O$_{8+delta}$ by scanning tunneling spectroscopy at 30 mK < T < 52 K. It is known that a Zn impurity induces a sharp resonant peak in tunnel spec
trum at an energy close to the Fermi level. We observed that the resonant peak survives up to 52 K. The peak broadens with increasing temperature, which is explained by the thermal effect. This result provides information to understand the origin of the resonant peak.
