Strong Crystallographic Influence on Spin Hall Mechanism in PLD-Grown IrO2 Thin Films

Spin-to-charge conversion is a central process in the emerging field of spintronics. One of its main applications is the electrical detection of spin currents, and for this, the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) has become one of the preferred methods. We studied the thickness dependence of the ISHE in iridium oxide (IrO2) thin films, producing spin currents by means of the spin Seebeck effect in γ−Fe2O3/IrO2 bilayers prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The observed ISHE charge current density, which features a maximum as a consequence of the spin diffusion length scale, follows the typical behaviour of spin-Hall-related phenomena. By fitting to the theory developed by Castel et al., we find that the spin Hall angle θSH scales proportionally to the thin film resistivity, θSH∝ρc, and obtains a value for the spin diffusion length λIrO2 of λIrO2=3.3(7) nm. In addition, we observe a negative θSH for every studied thickness and temperature, unlike previously reported works, which brings the possibility of tuning the desired functionality of high-resistance spin-Hall-based devices. We attribute this behaviour to the textured growth of the sample in the context of a highly anisotropic value of the spin Hall conductivity in this material.

Determination of Cobalt Spin-Diffusion Length in Co/Cu Multilayered Heterojunction Nanocylinders Based on Valet–Fert Model

Anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) nanochannels of diameter, D, of ~50 nm and length, L, of ~60 µm (L/D: approx. 1200 in the aspect ratio), were synthesized and applied as an electrode for the electrochemical growth of Co/Cu multilayered heterojunction nanocylinders. We synthesized numerous Co/Cu multilayered nanocylinders by applying a rectangular pulsed potential deposition method. The Co layer thickness, tCo, ranged from ~8 to 27 nm, and it strongly depended on the pulsed-potential condition for Co layers, ECo. The Cu layer thickness, tCu, was kept at less than 4 nm regardless of ECo. We applied an electrochemical in situ contact technique to connect a Co/Cu multilayered nanocylinder with a sputter-deposited Au thin layer. Current perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) effect reached up to ~23% in a Co/Cu multilayered nanocylinder with ~4760 Co/Cu bilayers (tCu: 4 nm and tCo: 8.6 nm). With a decrease in tCo, (ΔR/Rp)−1 was linearly reduced based on the Valet–Fert equation under the condition of tF > lFsf and tN < lNsf. The cobalt spin-diffusion length, lCosf, was estimated to be ~12.5 nm.

Energy-Efficient Multiferroic Spin-Devices and Spin-Circuits

Spin-devices are switched by flipping spins without moving charge in space and this can lead to ultra-low-energy switching replacing traditional transistors in beyond Moore’s law era. In particular, the electric field-induced magnetization switching has emerged to be an energy-efficient paradigm. Here, we review the recent developments on ultra-low-energy, area-efficient, and fast spin-devices using multiferroic magnetoelectric composites. It is shown that both digital logic gates and analog computing with transistor-like high-gain region in the input-output characteristics of multiferroic composites are feasible. We also review the equivalent spin-circuit representation of spin-devices by considering spin potential and spin current similar to the charge-based counterparts using Kirchhoff’s voltage/current laws, which is necessary for the development of large-scale circuits. We review the spin-circuit representation of spin pumping, which happens anyway when there is a material adjacent to a rotating magnetization and therefore it is particularly necessary to be incorporated in device modeling. Such representation is also useful for understanding and proposing experiments. In spin-circuit representation, spin diffusion length is an important parameter and it is shown that a thickness-dependent spin diffusion length reflecting Elliott–Yafet spin relaxation mechanism in platinum is necessary to match the experimental results.