Spin currents in diluted magnetic semiconductors

Polarization-controlled tunable directional spin-driven photocurrents in a magnetic metamaterial with threefold rotational symmetry

Future spintronics and quantum technologies will require a portfolio of techniques for manipulating electron spins in functional nanodevices. Especially, the establishment of the methods to control spin current is the key ingredient essential for the transfer and processing of information, enabling faster and low-energy operation. However, a universal method for manipulating spin currents with full-directional controllability and tunable magnitude has not been established. Here we show that an artificial material called a magnetic metamaterial (MM), which possesses a novel spintronic functionality not exhibited by the original substance, generates photo-driven ultrafast spin currents at room temperature via the magneto-photogalvanic effect. By tuning the polarization state of the excitation light, these spin currents can be directed with tunable magnitude along an arbitrary direction in the two-dimensional plane of the MM. This new concept may guide the design and creation of artificially engineered opto-spintronic functionalities beyond the limitations of conventional material science.

By carefully structuring and patterning a material, it is possible to introduce emergent properties that would otherwise not exist. These metamaterials have allowed the development of a wide variety of new optical properties. Here, Matsubara et al present a magnetic metamaterial, where spin-currents can be directed by tuning the polarization of the incident light.

PT-Symmetry-Enabled Spin Circular Photogalvanic Effect in Antiferromagnetic Insulators

The short timescale spin dynamics in antiferromagnets is an attractive feature from the standpoint of ultrafast spintronics. Yet generating highly polarized spin current at room temperature remains a fundamental challenge for antiferromagnets. We propose a spin circular photogalvanic effect (spin CPGE), in which circularly polarized light can produce a highly spin-polarized current at room temperature, through an "injection-current-like" mechanism in parity-time (PT)-symmetric antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulators. We demonstrate this effect by first-principles simulations of bilayer CrI_{3} and room-temperature-AFM hematite. The spin CPGE is significant, and the magnitude of spin photocurrent is comparable with the widely observed charge photocurrent in ferroelectric materials. Interestingly, this spin photocurrent is not sensitive to spin-orbit interactions, which were regarded as fundamental mechanisms for generating spin current. Given the fast response of light-matter interactions, large energy scale, and insensitivity to spin-orbit interactions, our work gives hope to realizing fast-dynamic and temperature-robust pure spin current in a wide range of PT-symmetric AFM materials, including topological axion insulators and weak-relativistic magnetic insulators.

Terahertz Photogalvanics in Twisted Bilayer Graphene Close to the Second Magic Angle

We report on the observation of photogalvanic effects in tBLG with a twist angle of 0.6°. We show that excitation of the tBLG bulk causes a photocurrent, whose sign and magnitude are controlled by the orientation of the radiation electric field and the photon helicity. The observed photocurrent provides evidence for the reduction of the point group symmetry in low twist-angle tBLG to the lowest possible one. The developed theory shows that the current is formed by asymmetric scattering in gyrotropic tBLG. We also detected the photogalvanic current formed in the vicinity of the edges. For both bulk and edge photocurrents, we demonstrate the emergence of pronounced oscillations upon variation of the gate voltage. The gate voltages associated with the oscillations correlate with peaks in resistance measurements. These are well explained by interband transitions between a multitude of isolated bands in tBLG.

Helicity-Sensitive Plasmonic Terahertz Interferometer

Plasmonic interferometry is a rapidly growing area of research with a huge potential for applications in the terahertz frequency range. In this Letter, we explore a plasmonic interferometer based on graphene field effect transistor connected to specially designed antennas. As a key result, we observe helicity- and phase-sensitive conversion of circularly polarized radiation into dc photovoltage caused by the plasmon-interference mechanism: two plasma waves, excited at the source and drain part of the transistor, interfere inside the channel. The helicity-sensitive phase shift between these waves is achieved by using an asymmetric antenna configuration. The dc signal changes sign with inversion of the helicity. A suggested plasmonic interferometer is capable of measuring the phase difference between two arbitrary phase-shifted optical signals. The observed effect opens a wide avenue for phase-sensitive probing of plasma wave excitations in two-dimensional materials.

Absorption and Magnetic Circular Dichroism Analyses of Giant Zeeman Splittings in Diffusion-Doped Colloidal Cd(1-x)Mn(x)Se Quantum Dots

Impurity ions can transform the electronic, magnetic, or optical properties of colloidal quantum dots. Magnetic impurities introduce strong dopant-carrier exchange coupling that generates giant Zeeman splittings (ΔEZ) of excitonic excited states. To date, ΔEZ in colloidal doped quantum dots has primarily been quantified by analysis of magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) intensities and absorption line widths (σ). Here, we report ΔEZ values detected directly by absorption spectroscopy for the first time in such materials, using colloidal Cd(1-x)Mn(x)Se quantum dots prepared by diffusion doping. A convenient method for decomposing MCD and absorption data into circularly polarized absorption spectra is presented. These data confirm the widely applied MCD analysis in the low-field, high-temperature regime, but also reveal a breakdown at low temperatures and high fields when ΔEZ/σ approaches unity, a situation not previously encountered in doped quantum dots. This breakdown is apparent for the first time here because of the extraordinarily large ΔEZ and small σ achieved by nanocrystal diffusion doping.

Magnetic quantum ratchet effect in Si-MOSFETs

We report on the observation of magnetic quantum ratchet effect in metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect-transistors on silicon surface (Si-MOSFETs). We show that the excitation of an unbiased transistor by ac electric field of terahertz radiation at normal incidence leads to a direct electric current between the source and drain contacts if the transistor is subjected to an in-plane magnetic field. The current rises linearly with the magnetic field strength and quadratically with the ac electric field amplitude. It depends on the polarization state of the ac field and can be induced by both linearly and circularly polarized radiation. We present the quasi-classical and quantum theories of the observed effect and show that the current originates from the Lorentz force acting upon carriers in asymmetric inversion channels of the transistors.

Prediction of a linear spin bulk photovoltaic effect in antiferromagnets

Here we predict the existence of a linear bulk spin photovoltaic effect, where spin currents are produced in antiferromagnetic materials as a response to linearly polarized light, and we describe the symmetry requirements for such a phenomenon to exist. This effect does not depend on spin-orbit effects or require inversion symmetry breaking, distinguishing it from previously explored methods. We propose that the physical mechanism is the nonlinear optical effect "shift current," and calculate from first principles the spin photocurrent for hematite and bismuth ferrite. We predict a significant response in these materials, with hematite being especially promising due to its availability, low band gap, lack of charge photocurrents, and negligible spin-orbit effect.