Direct observation of a bulklike spin moment at the Fe/GaAs(100)-4x6 interface

Absence of Spin-Orbit Torque and Discovery of Anisotropic Planar Nernst Effect in CoFe Single Crystal

Exploration of exotic spin polarizations in single crystals is of increasing interest. A current of longitudinal spins, the so-called "Dresselhaus-like" spin current, which is forbidden in materials lacking certain inversion asymmetries, is implied to be generated by a charge current at the interface of single-crystal CoFe. This work reports unambiguous evidence that there is no indication of spin current of any spin polarizations from the interface or bulk of single-crystalline CoFe and that the sin2φ second harmonic Hall voltage, which is previously assumed to signify Dresselhaus-like spin current, is not related to any spin currents but rather a planar Nernst voltage induced by a longitudinal temperature gradient within the sample. Such sin2φ signal is independent of large applied magnetic fields and interfacial spin-orbit coupling, inversely correlated to the heat capacity of the substrates and overlayers, quadratic in charge current, and appears also in polycrystalline ferromagnets. Strikingly, the planar Nernst effect (PNE) in the CoFe single crystal has a strong fourfold anisotropy and varies with the crystalline orientation. Such strong, anisotropic PNE has widespread impacts on the analyses of a variety of spintronic experiments and opens a new avenue for the development of PNE-based thermoelectric battery and sensor applications.

Tuning 2D magnetism in Fe3+XGeTe2 films by element doping

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic materials have been discovered with tunable magnetism and orbital-driven nodal-line features. Controlling the 2D magnetism in exfoliated nanoflakes via electric/magnetic fields enables a boosted Curie temperature (T_C) or phase transitions. One of the challenges, however, is the realization of high T_C 2D magnets that are tunable, robust and suitable for large scale fabrication. Here, we report molecular-beam epitaxy growth of wafer-scale Fe_3+XGeTe₂ films with T_C above room temperature. By controlling the Fe composition in Fe_3+XGeTe₂, a continuously modulated T_C in a broad range of 185–320 K has been achieved. This widely tunable T_C is attributed to the doped interlayer Fe that provides a 40% enhancement around the optimal composition X = 2. We further fabricated magnetic tunneling junction device arrays that exhibit clear tunneling signals. Our results show an effective and reliable approach, i.e. element doping, to producing robust and tunable ferromagnetism beyond room temperature in a large-scale 2D Fe_3+XGeTe₂ fashion.

Gilbert damping in CoFeB/GaAs(001) film with enhanced in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy

A 3.5 nm amorphous CoFeB film was sputtered on GaAs (001) wafer substrate without applying magnetic field during deposition, and a significant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) field (H_u) of about 300 Oe could be achieved. To precisely determine the intrinsic Gilbert damping constant (α) of this film, both ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE) techniques were utilized. With good fitting of the dynamic spectra of FMR and TRMOKE, α is calculated to be 0.010 and 0.013, respectively. Obviously, the latter is 30% larger than the former, which is due to the transient heating effect during the TRMOKE measurement. In comparison with ordinary amorphous CoFeB films with negligible magnetic anisotropies, α is enhanced significantly in the CoFeB/GaAs(001) film, which may be mainly resulted from the enhanced spin-orbit coupling induced by the CoFeB/GaAs interface. However, the significant in-plane UMA plays minor role in the enhancement of α.

Spin-Dependent Transport in Fe/GaAs(100)/Fe Vertical Spin-Valves

The integration of magnetic materials with semiconductors will lead to the development of the next spintronics devices such as spin field effect transistor (SFET), which is capable of both data storage and processing. While the fabrication and transport studies of lateral SFET have attracted greatly attentions, there are only few studies of vertical devices, which may offer the opportunity for the future three-dimensional integration. Here, we provide evidence of two-terminal electrical spin injection and detection in Fe/GaAs/Fe vertical spin-valves (SVs) with the GaAs layer of 50 nanometers thick and top and bottom Fe electrodes deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. The spin-valve effect, which corresponds to the individual switching of the top and bottom Fe layers, is bias dependent and observed up to 20 K. We propose that the strongly bias- and temperature-dependent MR is associated with spin transport at the interfacial Fe/GaAs Schottky contacts and in the GaAs membranes, where balance between the barrier profiles as well as the dwell time to spin lifetime ratio are crucial factors for determining the device operations. The demonstration of the fabrication and spin injection in the vertical SV with a semiconductor interlayer is expected to open a new avenue in exploring the SFET.

Probing the Buried Magnetic Interfaces

Understanding magnetism in ferromagnetic metal/semiconductor (FM/SC) heterostructures is important to the development of the new-generation spin field-effect transistor. Here, we report an element-specific X-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of the interfacial magnetic moments for two FM/SC model systems, namely, Co/GaAs and Ni/GaAs, which was enabled using a specially designed FM1/FM2/SC superstructure. We observed a robust room temperature magnetization of the interfacial Co, while that of the interfacial Ni was strongly diminished down to 5 K because of hybridization of the Ni d(eg) and GaAs sp(3) states. The validity of the selected method was confirmed by first-principles calculations, showing only small deviations (<0.02 and <0.07 μB/atom for Co/GaAs and Ni/GaAs, respectively) compared to the real FM/SC interfaces. Our work proved that the electronic structure and magnetic ground state of the interfacial FM2 is not altered when the topmost FM2 is replaced by FM1 and that this model is applicable generally for probing the buried magnetic interfaces in the advanced spintronic materials..

Atomic-Scale Interfacial Magnetism in Fe/Graphene Heterojunction

Successful spin injection into graphene makes it a competitive contender in the race to become a key material for quantum computation, or the spin-operation-based data processing and sensing. Engineering ferromagnetic metal (FM)/graphene heterojunctions is one of the most promising avenues to realise it, however, their interface magnetism remains an open question up to this day. In any proposed FM/graphene spintronic devices, the best opportunity for spin transport could only be achieved where no magnetic dead layer exists at the FM/graphene interface. Here we present a comprehensive study of the epitaxial Fe/graphene interface by means of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The experiment has been performed using a specially designed FM₁/FM₂/graphene structure that to a large extent restores the realistic case of the proposed graphene-based transistors. We have quantitatively observed a reduced but still sizable magnetic moments of the epitaxial Fe ML on graphene, which is well resembled by simulations and can be attributed to the strong hybridization between the Fe 3d_z2 and the C 2p_z orbitals and the sp-orbital-like behavior of the Fe 3d electrons due to the presence of graphene.

Body-centered-cubic Ni and its magnetic properties

The body-centered-cubic (bcc) phase of Ni, which does not exist in nature, has been achieved as a thin film on GaAs(001) at 170 K via molecular beam epitaxy. The bcc Ni is ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature of 456 K and possesses a magnetic moment of 0.52+/-0.08 micro(B)/atom. The cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropy of bcc Ni is determined to be +4.0x10(5) ergs x cm(-3), as opposed to -5.7x10(4) ergs x cm(-3) for the naturally occurring face-centered-cubic (fcc) Ni. This sharp contrast in the magnetic anisotropy is attributed to the different electronic band structures between bcc Ni and fcc Ni, which are determined using angle-resolved photoemission with synchrotron radiation.