Evidences of pure spin current are indistinguishable from those of many parasitic effects. Proper choices of materials and methods are essential for exploring pure spin current phenomena and devices.
Due to the difficulty to grow high quality semiconductors on ferromagnetic metals, the study of spin diffusion transport in Si was only limited to lateral geometry devices. In this work, by using ultra-high vacuum wafer-bonding technique, we have suc
cessfully fabricated metal semiconductor metal CoFeB/MgO/Si/Pt vertical structures. We hereby demonstrate pure spin-current injection and transport in the perpendicular current flow geometry over a distance larger than 2mu m in n-type Si at room temperature. In those experiments, a pure propagating spin-current is generated via ferromagnetic resonance spin-pumping and converted into a measurable voltage by using the inverse spin-Hall effect occurring in the top Pt layer. A systematic study by varying both Si and MgO thicknesses reveals the important role played by the localized states at the MgO/Si interface for the spin-current generation. Proximity effects involving indirect exchange interactions between the ferromagnet and the MgO/Si interface states appears to be a prerequisite to establish the necessary out-of-equilibrium spin-population in Si under the spin-pumping action.
Spin Hall effect, an electric generation of spin current, allows for efficient control of magnetization. Recent theory revealed that orbital Hall effect creates orbital current, which can be much larger than spin Hall-induced spin current. However, o
rbital current cannot directly exert a torque on a ferromagnet, requiring a conversion process from orbital current to spin current. Here, we report two effective methods of the conversion through spin-orbit coupling engineering, which allows us to unambiguously demonstrate orbital-current-induced spin torque, or orbital Hall torque. We find that orbital Hall torque is greatly enhanced by introducing either a rare-earth ferromagnet Gd or a Pt interfacial layer with strong spin-orbit coupling in Cr/ferromagnet structures, indicating that the orbital current generated in Cr is efficiently converted into spin current in the Gd or Pt layer. Furthermore, we show that the orbital Hall torque can facilitate the reduction of switching current of perpendicular magnetization in spin-orbit-torque-based spintronic devices.
We unravel the origin of current-induced magnetic switching of insulating antiferromagnet/heavy metal systems. We utilize concurrent transport and magneto-optical measurements to image the switching of antiferromagnetic domains in specially engineere
d devices of NiO/Pt bilayers. Different electrical pulsing and device geometries reveal different final states of the switching with respect to the current direction. We can explain these through simulations of the temperature induced strain and we identify the thermomagnetoelastic switching mechanism combined with thermal excitations as the origin, in which the final state is defined by the strain distributions and heat is required to switch the antiferromagnetic domains. We show that such a potentially very versatile non-contact mechanism can explain the previously reported contradicting observations of the switching final state, which were attributed to spin-orbit torque mechanisms.
Spin current generators are critical components for spintronics-based information processing. In this work, we theoretically and computationally investigate the bulk spin photovoltaic (BSPV) effect for creating DC spin current under light illuminatio
n. The only requirement for BPSV is inversion symmetry breaking, thus it applies to a broad range of materials and can be readily integrated with existing semiconductor technologies. The BSPV effect is a cousin of the bulk photovoltaic (BPV) effect, whereby a DC charge current is generated under light. Thanks to the different selection rules on spin and charge currents, a pure spin current can be realized if the system possesses mirror symmetry or inversion-mirror symmetry. The mechanism of BPSV and the role of the electronic relaxation time $tau$ are also elucidated. We apply our theory to several distinct material systems, including transition metal dichalcogenides, anti-ferromagnetic $rm MnBi_2Te_4$, and the surface of topological crystalline insulator cubic $rm SnTe$.
The magnitude of spin-orbit torque (SOT), exerted to a ferromagnet (FM) from an adjacent heavy metal (HM), strongly depends on the amount of spin currents absorbed in the FM. We exploit the large spin absorption at the Ru interface to manipulate the
SOTs in HM/FM/Ru multilayers. While the FM thickness is smaller than its spin dephasing length of 1.2 nm, the top Ru layer largely boosts the absorption of spin currents into the FM layer and substantially enhances the strength of SOT acting on the FM. Spin-pumping experiments induced by ferromagnetic resonance support our conclusions that the observed increase in the SOT efficiency can be attributed to an enhancement of the spin-current absorption. A theoretical model that considers both reflected and transmitted mixing conductances at the two interfaces of FM is developed to explain the results.