Giant spin Hall effect in perpendicularly spin-polarized FePt/Au devices

Conversion of charge current into pure spin current and vice versa in non-magnetic semiconductors or metals, which are called the direct and inverse spin Hall effects (SHEs), provide a new functionality of materials for future spin-electronic architectures. Thus, the realization of a large SHE in a device with a simple and practical geometry is a crucial issue for its applications. Here, we present a multi-terminal device with a Au Hall cross and an FePt perpendicular spin injector to detect giant direct and inverse SHEs at room temperature. Perpendicularly magnetized FePt injects or detects perpendicularly polarized spin current without magnetic field, enabling the unambiguous identification of SHEs. The unprecedentedly large spin Hall resistance of up to 2.9 mOmega is attributed to the large spin Hall angle in Au through the skew scattering mechanism and the highly efficient spin injection due to the well-matched spin resistances of the chosen materials.     

Manipulation of spin currents in metallic systems

The transport properties of diffusive spin currents have been investigated in lateral ferromagnetic/non-magnetic metal hybrid structures. The spin diffusion processes were found to be strongly dependent on the magnitude of the spin resistances of connected materials. Efficient spin injection and detection are accomplished by optimizing the junction structures on the basis of the spin resistance circuitry. The magnetization switching of a nanoscale ferromagnetic particle and also room temperature spin Hall effect measurements were realized by using an efficient pure-spin-current injection.     

Rashba Effect in Functional Spintronic Devices

Exploiting spin transport increases the functionality of electronic devices and enables such devices to overcome physical limitations related to speed and power. Utilizing the Rashba effect at the interface of heterostructures provides promising opportunities toward the development of high-performance devices because it enables electrical control of the spin information. Herein, the focus is mainly on progress related to the two most compelling devices that exploit the Rashba effect: spin transistors and spin–orbit torque devices. For spin field-effect transistors, the gate-voltage manipulation of the Rashba effect and subsequent control of the spin precession are discussed, including for all-electric spin field-effect transistors. For spin–orbit torque devices, recent theories and experiments on interface-generated spin current are discussed. The future directions of manipulating the Rashba effect to realize fully integrated spin logic and memory devices are also discussed.     

Ten Years of Spin Hall Effect

In this short review I survey the theory of the spin Hall effect in doped semiconductors and metals in the light of recent experiments on both kinds of materials. After a brief introduction to different types of spin–orbit coupling in solids, I describe in detail the three conceptually distinct mechanisms that are known to contribute to the spin Hall effect, namely “skew-scattering”, “side-jump”, and “intrinsic mechanism”. The skew-scattering mechanism is shown to be dominant in certain clean two-dimensional semiconductors in which one component of the spin is conserved. In such systems the side-jump mechanism is sub-dominant, but universal in form, and can become dominant if the electron mobility is reduced by changing the temperature. Both skew-scattering and side-jump contributions are generally reduced by spin precession, and skew-scattering is completely suppressed in the linear Rashba model in the absence of magnetic field. Different models of spin–orbit coupling can, however, sustain an intrinsic spin Hall effect. A brief summary of the present experimental situation concludes the review.     

Single electron spintronics

Single electron electronics is now well developed, and allows the manipulation of electrons one-by-one as they tunnel on and off a nanoscale conducting island. In the past decade or so, there have been concerted efforts in several laboratories to construct single electron devices incorporating ferromagnetic components in order to introduce spin functionality. The use of ferromagnetic electrodes with a non-magnetic island can lead to spin accumulation on the island. On the other hand, making the dot also ferromagnetic introduces new physics such as tunnelling magnetoresistance enhancement in the cotunnelling regime and manifestations of the Kondo effect. Such nanoscale islands are also found to have long spin lifetimes. Conventional spintronics makes use of the average spin-polarization of a large ensemble of electrons: this new approach offers the prospect of accessing the quantum properties of the electron, and is a candidate approach to the construction of solid-state spin-based qubits.     

Supramolecular spin valves

Magnetic molecules are potential building blocks for the design of spintronic devices. Moreover, molecular materials enable the combination of bottom-up processing techniques, for example with conventional top-down nanofabrication. The development of solid-state spintronic devices based on the giant magnetoresistance, tunnel magnetoresistance and spin-valve effects has revolutionized magnetic memory applications. Recently, a significant improvement of the spin-relaxation time has been observed in organic semiconductor tunnel junctions, single non-magnetic molecules coupled to magnetic electrodes have shown giant magnetoresistance and hybrid devices exploiting the quantum tunnelling properties of single-molecule magnets have been proposed. Herein, we present an original spin-valve device in which a non-magnetic molecular quantum dot, made of a single-walled carbon nanotube contacted with non-magnetic electrodes, is laterally coupled through supramolecular interactions to TbPc(2) single-molecule magnets (Pc=phthalocyanine). Their localized magnetic moments lead to a magnetic field dependence of the electrical transport through the single-walled carbon nanotube, resulting in magnetoresistance ratios up to 300% at temperatures less than 1 K. We thus demonstrate the functionality of a supramolecular spin valve without magnetic leads. Our results open up prospects of new spintronic devices with quantum properties.     

半导体自旋电子学的研究与应用进展

简单介绍了半导体自旋电子学的研究对象和内容,主要包括磁性半导体、磁性/半导体复合结构、非磁性半导体量子阱和纳米结构中的自旋现象,以及半导体的自旋注入等.综述了半导体自旋电子学目前的研究进展及其在自旋电子器件和量子信息处理中的应用.     

Calculating the Effects of Longitudinal Resistance in Multi-Series-Connected Quantum Hall Effect Devices

Many ac quantized Hall resistance experiments have measured significant values of ac longitudinal resistances under temperature and magnetic field conditions in which the dc longitudinal resistance values were negligible. We investigate the effect of non-vanishing ac longitudinal resistances on measurements of the quantized Hall resistances by analyzing equivalent circuits of quantized Hall effect resistors. These circuits are based on ones reported previously for dc quantized Hall resistors, but use additional resistors to represent longitudinal resistances. For simplification, no capacitances or inductances are included in the circuits. The analysis is performed for many combinations of multi-series connections to quantum Hall effect devices. The exact algebraic solutions for the quantized Hall resistances under these conditions of finite ac longitudinal resistances provide corrections to the measured quantized Hall resistances, but these corrections do not account for the frequency dependences of the ac quantized Hall resistances reported in the literature.     

外尔半金属TaAs单晶的研究进展

外尔半金属是当两个自旋非简并能带在三维动量空间通过费米能级附近时,其低能准粒子激发具有外尔费米子的所有特征的一类材料体系。外尔费米子是狄拉克方程的无质量解,可以看作是在三维空间一对重叠在一起且具有相反手性的粒子。TaAs单晶作为一种非磁性的外尔半金属,在其中能够观测到外尔费米子,并产生许多奇异的物理现象,如费米弧、负磁阻效应、量子反常霍尔效应等,使其在发展新型电子器件和拓扑量子计算等领域有着重要应用潜力。介绍了外尔半金属的相关基础理论和重要实验,重点探讨了TaAs单晶生长相关的技术问题,分析了化学气相传输法的优缺点。     

Magnetic Proximity Effect in Graphene/CrBr3 van der Waals Heterostructures

2D van der Waals heterostructures serve as a promising platform to exploit various physical phenomena in a diverse range of novel spintronic device applications. Efficient spin injection is the prerequisite for these devices. The recent discovery of magnetic 2D materials leads to the possibility of fully 2D van der Waals spintronics devices by implementing spin injection through the magnetic proximity effect (MPE). Here, the investigation of MPE in 2D graphene/CrBr₃ van der Waals heterostructures is reported, which is probed by the Zeeman spin Hall effect through non-local measurements. Quantitative estimation of the Zeeman splitting field demonstrates a significant MPE field even in a low magnetic field. Furthermore, the observed anomalous longitudinal resistance changes at the Dirac point R_XX,D with increasing magnetic field near ν = 0 may be attributed to the MPE-induced new ground state phases. This MPE revealed in the graphene/CrBr₃ van der Waals heterostructures therefore provides a solid physics basis and key functionality for next-generation 2D spin logic and memory devices.     

Transport properties of coupled semiconductor quantum dots

We have measured the electronic transport properties of the coupled quantum dot devices at low temperatures. The interplay between the strong many body spin interaction and the molecular states are probed in linear and non-linear transport regime. We observe the formation of strong coherent molecular states clearly visible in the double dot conductance phase diagram. In our study, the spin configuration in multiply coupled quantum dots could be identified using Kondo phenomenon. In addition, the characteristics of the spin dependent molecular states and phase dependant tunneling have been also observed using non-linear conductance measurement of the double dots. The results suggest the importance of the diverse spin related physical issues in artificial quantum dot devices.     

Spin current,spin accumulation and spin Hall effect

Abstract

Nonlocal spin transport in nanostructured devices with ferromagnetic injector (F1) and detector (F2) electrodes connected to a normal conductor (N) is studied. We reveal how the spin transport depends on interface resistance, electrode resistance, spin polarization and spin diffusion length, and obtain the conditions for efficient spin injection, spin accumulation and spin current in the device. It is demonstrated that the spin Hall effect is caused by spin–orbit scattering in nonmagnetic conductors and gives rise to the conversion between spin and charge currents in a nonlocal device. A method of evaluating spin–orbit coupling in nonmagnetic metals is proposed.     

Spin caloritronics

Spintronics is about the coupled electron spin and charge transport in condensed-matter structures and devices. The recently invigorated field of spin caloritronics focuses on the interaction of spins with heat currents, motivated by newly discovered physical effects and strategies to improve existing thermoelectric devices. Here we give an overview of our understanding and the experimental state-of-the-art concerning the coupling of spin, charge and heat currents in magnetic thin films and nanostructures. Known phenomena are classified either as independent electron (such as spin-dependent Seebeck) effects in metals that can be understood by a model of two parallel spin-transport channels with different thermoelectric properties, or as collective (such as spin Seebeck) effects, caused by spin waves, that also exist in insulating ferromagnets. The search to find applications--for example heat sensors and waste heat recyclers--is on.     

Ferrimagnetic Skyrmions in Topological Insulator/Ferrimagnet Heterostructures

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically nontrivial chiral spin textures that have potential applications in next-generation energy-efficient and high-density spintronic devices. In general, the chiral spins of skyrmions are stabilized by the noncollinear Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), originating from the inversion symmetry breaking combined with the strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC). Here, the strong SOC from topological insulators (TIs) is utilized to provide a large interfacial DMI in TI/ferrimagnet heterostructures at room temperature, resulting in small-size (radius ≈ 100 nm) skyrmions in the adjacent ferrimagnet. Antiferromagnetically coupled skyrmion sublattices are observed in the ferrimagnet by element-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, showing the potential of a vanishing skyrmion Hall effect and ultrafast skyrmion dynamics. The line-scan spin profile of the single skyrmion shows a Néel-type domain wall structure and a 120 nm size of the 180° domain wall. This work demonstrates the sizable DMI and small skyrmions in TI-based heterostructures with great promise for low-energy spintronic devices.     

Rise of silicene: A competitive 2D material

Silicene, a silicon analogue of graphene, has attracted increasing attention during the past few years. As early as in 1994, the possibility of stage corrugation in the Si analogs of graphite had already been theoretically explored. But there were very few studies on silicene until 2009, when silicene with a low buckled structure was confirmed to be dynamically stable by ab initio calculations. In spite of the low buckled geometry, silicene shares most of the outstanding electronic properties of planar graphene (e.g., the “Dirac cone”, high Fermi velocity and carrier mobility). Compared with graphene, silicene has several prominent advantages: (1) a much stronger spin–orbit coupling, which may lead to a realization of quantum spin Hall effect in the experimentally accessible temperature, (2) a better tunability of the band gap, which is necessary for an effective field effect transistor (FET) operating at room temperature, (3) an easier valley polarization and more suitability for valleytronics study. From 2012, monolayer silicene sheets of different superstructures were successfully synthesized on various substrates, including Ag(1 1 1), Ir(1 1 1), ZrB₂(0 0 0 1), ZrC(1 1 1) and MoS₂ surfaces. Multilayer silicene sheets have also been grown on Ag(1 1 1) surface. The experimental successes have stimulated many efforts to explore the intrinsic properties as well as potential device applications of silicene, including quantum spin Hall effect, quantum anomalous Hall effect, quantum valley Hall effect, superconductivity, band engineering, magnetism, thermoelectric effect, gas sensor, tunneling FET, spin filter, and spin FET, etc. Recently, a silicene FET has been fabricated, which shows the expected ambipolar Dirac charge transport and paves the way towards silicene-based nanoelectronics. This comprehensive review covers all the important theoretical and experimental advances on silicene to date, from the basic theory of intrinsic properties, experimental synthesis and characterization, modulation of physical properties by modifications, and finally to device explorations.     

Strongly Surface State Carrier-Dependent Spin–Orbit Torque in Magnetic Topological Insulators

The topological surface states (TSS) in topological insulators (TIs) can exert strong spin–orbit torque (SOT) on adjacent magnetization, offering great potential in implementing energy-efficient magnetic memory devices. However, there are large discrepancies among the reported spin Hall angle values in TIs, and its temperature dependence still remains elusive. Here, the spin Hall angle in a modulation-doped Cr-Bi_xSb_2−xTe₃ (Cr-BST) film is quantitatively determined via both transport and optic approaches, where consistent results are obtained. A large spin Hall angle of ≈90 in the modulation-doped Cr-BST film is demonstrated at 2.5 K, and the spin Hall angle drastically decreases to 0.3–0.5 as the temperature increases. Moreover, by tuning the top TSS carrier concentration, a competition between the top and bottom TSS in contributing to SOT is observed. The above phenomena can account for the large discrepancies among the previously reported spin Hall angle values and reveal the unique role of TSS in generating SOT.     

Spin-polarized transport in II–VI diluted magnetic semiconductors superlattices

We studied the spin-polarized charge densities in II–VI-based diluted magnetic superlattices formed of p-doped ZnTe:Mg/ZnTe:TM/ZnTe:Mg non-magnetic/magnetic/non-magnetic layers, with TM standing for transition metal. The calculations were performed within a self-consistent k.p method, in which are also taken into account the exchange correlation effects in the local density approximation. Our results show a limit for the width of the non-magnetic layer for which the difference between the opposite spin charge densities is maximized, indicating the best conditions to obtain full polarization by varying the TM content. We also discuss these effects in the calculated photoluminescence spectra. Our findings point to the possibility of engineering the spin-polarized charge distribution by varying the widths of the magnetic and non-magnetic layers and/or varying the TM concentration in the magnetic layers, thus providing a guide for future experiments.     

Influence of energy bands on the Hall effect in degenerate semiconductors

The influence of energy bands on the Hall effect and transverse magnetoresistance has been investigated according to the scattering processes of carriers in degenerate semiconductors such as InSb. Results show that the Hall angle, Hall coefficient, and transverse magnetoresistance depend on the dc magnetic field for both parabolic and nonparabolic band structures of semiconductors and also depend on the scattering processes of carriers in semiconductors due to the energy-dependent relaxation time. From our numerical analysis for the Hall effect, it is shown that the conduction electrons in degenerate semiconductors play a major role for the carrier transport phenomenon. By comparing with experimental data of the transverse magnetoresistance, it shows that the nonparabolic band model is better in agreement with the experimental work than the parabolic band model of semiconductors.     

基于脉冲强磁场的高温超导薄膜YBa2 Cu3 O6.45霍尔效应研究

对高温超导材料常态特性的研究与理解,将会对超导电性机理本身的研究提供关键参考信息.在常态特性研究中,以常态电荷传输特性尤其是霍尔效应的测量最为引人注目.然而,T＜Tc时试样常态特征被材料本身的超导电性掩盖了,为获得材料在Tc温度以下的常态特性,我们在高达50T的脉冲强磁场中进行霍尔效应测量,可有效抑制超导电性.本文主要介绍了50T左右脉冲强磁场的实验技术,特别是脉冲磁体、实验探钟及测量线路的设计.随后,对高温超导薄膜YBa2Cu3O6.45在强磁场中的霍尔效应测量进行了详细阐述.     

Quantum Hall effect in the field-induced spin density wave states

The Hall conductance is investigated in the field-induced spin density wave phases of the quasi-one-dimensional system. The role of the order parameters in the quantization of the Hall effect is shown in the framework of the topological number of the wave functions in the momentum space. A possible mechanism of the sign changes of the Hall conductance observed in the experiments is proposed in this framework.