An official website of the United States government
Abstract Electric‐field‐controlled magnetism is of importance in realizing energy efficient, dense and fast information storage and processing. Strain‐mediated converse magneto‐electric (ME) coupling between ferromagnetic and ferroelectric heterostructure shows promise for realizing electric‐controlled magnetism at room temperature and is attracting a number of recent investigations. However, such ME‐effect studies have mainly focus on magnetic metals. In this work, high quality yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12(YIG)) films are deposited directly onto (100)‐oriented single‐crystal Pb (Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(PMN‐PT) substrates by means of magnetron sputtering. The electric‐field‐induced polarization switching and lattice strain in the PMN‐PT substrate results in two distinct magnetization states in the YIG film that are nonvolatile and electrically reversible. Because of the direct contact between the YIG and the PMN‐PT substrate, an efficient ME coupling and an almost 90° rotation of the easy axis of the YIG film can be realized. Furthermore, the electric‐field‐controlled hysteresis loop‐like ferromagnetic resonance field shifts and spin pumping signals are observed in Pt/YIG/PMN‐PT heterostructures. Thus, the obstacle is overcome via growing high‐quality YIG thin films directly onto PMN‐PT substrates and an efficient manipulation of magnetism and pure spin current transport by electric field is thereby realized. These findings are instructive for future low‐power magnetic insulator‐based spintronic devices.
more »
« less
Negative spin Hall angle and large spin-charge conversion in thermally evaporated chromium thin films
Spin-to-charge conversion and the reverse process are now critically important physical processes for a wide range of fundamental and applied studies in spintronics. Here, we experimentally demonstrate effective spin-to-charge conversion in thermally evaporated chromium thin films using the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE). We present LSSE results measured near room temperature for Cr films with thicknesses from 2 to 11 nm, deposited at room temperature on bulk polycrystalline yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) substrates. Comparison of the measured LSSE voltage, [Formula: see text], in Cr to a sputtered Pt film at the same nominal thickness grown on a matched YIG substrate shows that both films show comparably large spin-to-charge conversion. As previously shown for other forms of Cr, the LSSE signal for evaporated Cr/YIG shows the opposite sign compared to Pt, indicating that Cr has a negative spin Hall angle, [Formula: see text]. We also present measured charge resistivity, [Formula: see text], of the same evaporated Cr films on YIG. These values are large compared to Pt and comparable to [Formula: see text]-W at a similar thickness. Non-monotonic behavior of both [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with film thickness suggests that spin-to-charge conversion in evaporated Cr, which we expect has a different strain state than previously investigated sputtered films, could be modified by spin density wave antiferromagnetism in Cr.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2004646
- PAR ID:
- 10364095
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Institute of Physics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Volume:
- 131
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 0021-8979
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- Article No. 113904
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Magnetic heterostructures consisting of single‐crystal yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films coated with platinum are widely used in spin‐wave experiments related to spintronic phenomena such as the spin‐transfer‐torque, spin‐Hall, and spin‐Seebeck effects. However, spin waves in YIG/Pt bilayers experience much stronger attenuation than in bare YIG films. For micrometer‐thick YIG films, this effect is caused by microwave eddy currents in the Pt layer. This paper reports that by employing an excitation configuration in which the YIG film faces the metal plate of the microstrip antenna structure, the eddy currents in Pt are shunted and the transmission of the Damon–Eschbach surface spin wave is greatly improved. The reduction in spin‐wave attenuation persists even when the Pt coating is separated from the ground plate by a thin dielectric layer. This makes the proposed excitation configuration suitable for injection of an electric current into the Pt layer and thus for application in spintronics devices. The theoretical analysis carried out within the framework of the electrodynamic approach reveals how the platinum nanolayer and the nearby highly conductive metal plate affect the group velocity and the lifetime of the Damon–Eshbach surface wave and how these two wavelength‐dependent quantities determine the transmission characteristics of the spin‐wave device.more » « less
-
The inverse spinel ferrimagnetic NiCo2O4possesses high magnetic Curie temperature TC, high spin polarization, and strain-tunable magnetic anisotropy. Understanding the thickness scaling limit of these intriguing magnetic properties in NiCo2O4thin films is critical for their implementation in nanoscale spintronic applications. In this work, we report the unconventional magnetotransport properties of epitaxial (001) NiCo2O4films on MgAl2O4substrates in the ultrathin limit. Anomalous Hall effect measurements reveal strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for films down to 1.5 unit cell (1.2 nm), while TCfor 3 unit cell and thicker films remains above 300 K. The sign change in the anomalous Hall conductivity [Formula: see text] and its scaling relation with the longitudinal conductivity ([Formula: see text]) can be attributed to the competing effects between impurity scattering and band intrinsic Berry curvature, with the latter vanishing upon the thickness driven metal–insulator transition. Our study reveals the critical role of film thickness in tuning the relative strength of charge correlation, Berry phase effect, spin–orbit interaction, and impurity scattering, providing important material information for designing scalable epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions and sensing devices using NiCo2O4.more » « less
-
We examine the DC and radio frequency (RF) response of superconducting transmission line resonators comprised of very thin NbTiN films, [Formula: see text] in thickness, in the high-temperature limit, where the photon energy is less than the thermal energy. The resonant frequencies of these superconducting resonators show a significant nonlinear response as a function of RF input power, which can approach a frequency shift of [Formula: see text] in a [Formula: see text] span in the thinnest film. The strong nonlinear response allows these very thin film resonators to serve as high kinetic inductance parametric amplifiers.more » « less
-
Abstract While induced spin polarization of a palladium (Pd) overlayer on antiferromagnetic and magneto-electric Cr2O3(0001) is possible because of the boundary polarization at the Cr2O3(0001), in the single domain state, the Pd thin film appears to be ferromagnetic on its own, likely as a result of strain. In the conduction band, we find the experimental evidence of ferromagnetic spin polarized in Pd thin films on a Cr2O3(0001) single crystal, especially in the thin limit, Pd thickness of around 1–4 nm. Indeed there is significant spin polarization in 10 Å thick Pd films on Cr2O3(0001) at 310 K, i.e. above the Néel temperature of bulk Cr2O3. While Cr2O3(0001) has surface moments that tend to align along the surface normal, for Pd on Cr2O3, the spin polarization contains an in-plane component. Strain in the Pd adlayer on Cr2O3(0001) appears correlated to the spin polarization measured in spin polarized inverse photoemission spectroscopy. Further evidence for magnetization of Pd on Cr2O3is provided by measurement of the exchange bias fields in Cr2O3/Pd(buffer)/[Co/Pd]nexchange bias systems. The magnitude of the exchange bias field is, over a wide temperature range, virtually unaffected by the Pd thickness variation between 1 and 2 nm.more » « less
