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Title: Absorption of transverse spin current in ferromagnetic NiCu: Dominance of bulk dephasing over spin-flip scattering

In ferromagnetic metals, transverse spin currents are thought to be absorbed via dephasing—i.e., destructive interference of spins precessing about the strong exchange field. Yet, due to the ultrashort coherence length of ≈1 nm in typical ferromagnetic thin films, it is difficult to distinguish dephasing in the bulk from spin-flip scattering at the interface. Here, to assess which mechanism dominates, we examine transverse spin-current absorption in ferromagnetic NiCu alloy films with reduced exchange fields. We observe that the coherence length increases with decreasing Curie temperature, as weaker dephasing in the film bulk slows down spin absorption. Moreover, nonmagnetic Cu impurities do not diminish the efficiency of spin-transfer torque from the absorbed spin current. Our findings affirm that the transverse spin current is predominantly absorbed by dephasing inside the nanometer-thick ferromagnetic metals, even with high impurity contents.

 
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Award ID(s):
2003914
NSF-PAR ID:
10382835
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Institute of Physics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Volume:
121
Issue:
22
ISSN:
0003-6951
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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