72 research outputs found
Thermal spin transport and spin transfer torque in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic nanoscale devices
Dit proefschrift beschrijft fundamentele experimenten waarin de koppeling tussen de elektrische, magnetische en thermische eigenschappen van elektronen transport in metalen wordt onderzocht. Om dit doel te bewerkstelligen zijn verschillende zeer kleine structuren, zogenaamde devices, gemaakt met behulp van elektronenbundel- en optische-lithografie. Deze structuren zijn lateraal, dat wil zeggen dat ze parallel aan het oppervlak liggen van het Silicium substraat waarop de devices gemaakt zijn. Het onderzoek verbind de twee bestaande individuele onderzoeksgebieden van de ‘spin-elektronica’ en de ‘caloritronica’ tot een nieuw onderzoeksgebied: de spin-caloritronica.
Het proefschrift is in twee delen opgedeeld. In het eerste deel worden experimenten beschreven waarin de verbinding tussen de elektrische, magnetische en thermische eigenschappen van elektronen transport in metalen wordt onderzocht. In het tweede deel worden experimenten en theorie beschreven waarin de invloed van spin-stromen op de magnetisatie dynamica wordt onderzocht. Voor alle experimenten maken we gebruik van magnetische geheugenelementen, die uit de magnetische legering Permalloy en koper bestaan.
This dissertation describes fundamental experiments which investigate the coupling between the electric, magnetic and thermal properties of electron transport. Several devices were constructed to accomplish this goal. The devices were created with the aid of electron-beam and optical lithography. The fabricated structures are lateral, which means they are oriented parallel to the Silicon substrate on which they are fabricated. This research connects the two existing research areas of spin-based electronics and caloritronics to a new research area: spin caloritronics.
The dissertation is split up in two parts. In the first part, we describe experiments which are aimed to demonstrate the coupling between the electrical, magnetic en thermal properties of electron transport. In the second part we describe experiments and theory which investigates the influence of spin-currents on spin-transfer torque. For all experiments, we make use of metallic spin-valves, which exist from the magnetic alloy Permalloy and copper.
Spin current induced magnetization oscillations in a paramagnetic disc
When electron spins are injected uniformly into a paramagnetic disc, they can
precess along the demagnetizing field induced by the resulting magnetic moment.
Normally this precession damps out by virtue of the spin relaxation which is
present in paramagnetic materials. We propose a new mechanism to excite a
steady-state form of this dynamics by injecting a constant spin current into
this paramagnetic disc. We show that the rotating magnetic field generated by
the eddy currents provide a torque which makes this possible. Unlike the
ferromagnetic equivalent, the spin-torque-oscillator, the oscillation frequency
is fixed and determined by the dimensions and intrinsic parameters of the
paramagnet. The system possesses an intrinsic threshold for spin injection
which needs to be overcome before steady-state precession is possible. The
additional application of a magnetic field lowers this threshold. We discuss
the feasibility of this effect in modern materials. Transient analysis using
pump-probe techniques should give insight in the physical processes which
accompany this effect
Interplay of Peltier and Seebeck effects in nanoscale nonlocal spin valves
We have experimentally studied the role of thermoelectric effects in
nanoscale nonlocal spin valve devices. A finite element thermoelectric model is
developed to calculate the generated Seebeck voltages due to Peltier and Joule
heating in the devices. By measuring the first, second and third harmonic
voltage response non locally, the model is experimentally examined. The results
indicate that the combination of Peltier and Seebeck effects contributes
significantly to the nonlocal baseline resistance. Moreover, we found that the
second and third harmonic response signals can be attributed to Joule heating
and temperature dependencies of both Seebeck coefficient and resistivity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Cooling and heating with electron spins: Observation of the spin Peltier effect
The Peltier coefficient describes the amount of heat that is carried by an
electrical current when it passes through a material. Connecting two materials
with different Peltier coefficients causes a net heat flow towards or away from
the interface, resulting in cooling or heating at the interface - the Peltier
effect. Spintronics describes the transport of charge and angular momentum by
making use of separate spin-up and spin-down channels. Recently, the merger of
thermoelectricity with spintronics has given rise to a novel and rich research
field named spin caloritronics. Here, we report the first direct experimental
observation of refrigeration/heating driven by a spin current, a new spin
thermoelectric effect which we call the spin Peltier effect. The heat flow is
generated by the spin dependency of the Peltier coefficient inside the
ferromagnetic material. We explored the effect in a specifically designed spin
valve pillar structure by measuring the temperature using an electrically
isolated thermocouple. The difference in heat flow between the two magnetic
configurations leads to a change in temperature. With the help of 3-D finite
element modeling, we extracted permalloy spin Peltier coefficients in the range
of -0.9 to -1.3 mV. These results enable magnetic control of heat flow and
provide new functionality for future spintronic devices
Thermal spin transport and spin-orbit interaction in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic metals
In this article we extend the currently established diffusion theory of
spin-dependent electrical conduction by including spin-dependent
thermoelectricity and thermal transport. Using this theory, we propose new
experiments aimed at demonstrating novel effects such as the spin-Peltier
effect, the reciprocal of the recently demonstrated thermally driven spin
injection, as well as the magnetic heat valve. We use finite-element methods to
model specific devices in literature to demonstrate our theory. Spin-orbit
effects such as anomalous-Hall, -Nernst, anisotropic magnetoresistance and
spin-Hall are also included in this model
Thermoelectric Detection of Ferromagnetic Resonance of a Nanoscale Ferromagnet
We present thermoelectric measurements of the heat dissipated due to ferromagnetic resonance of a Permalloy strip. A microwave magnetic field, produced by an on-chip coplanar strip waveguide, is used to drive the magnetization precession. The generated heat is detected via Seebeck measurements on a thermocouple connected to the ferromagnet. The observed resonance peak shape is in agreement with the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation and is compared with thermoelectric finite-element modeling. Unlike other methods, this technique is not restricted to electrically conductive media and is therefore also applicable to for instance ferromagnetic insulators
Suppressed spin dephasing for 2D and bulk electrons in GaAs wires due to engineered cancellation of spin-orbit interaction terms
We report a study of suppressed spin dephasing for quasi-one-dimensional
electron ensembles in wires etched into a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction system.
Time-resolved Kerr-rotation measurements show a suppression that is most
pronounced for wires along the [110] crystal direction. This is the fingerprint
of a suppression that is enhanced due to a strong anisotropy in spin-orbit
fields that can occur when the Rashba and Dresselhaus contributions are
engineered to cancel each other. A surprising observation is that this
mechanisms for suppressing spin dephasing is not only effective for electrons
in the heterojunction quantum well, but also for electrons in a deeper bulk
layer.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Seebeck Effect in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Creating temperature gradients in magnetic nanostructures has resulted in a
new research direction, i.e., the combination of magneto- and thermoelectric
effects. Here, we demonstrate the observation of one important effect of this
class: the magneto-Seebeck effect. It is observed when a magnetic configuration
changes the charge based Seebeck coefficient. In particular, the Seebeck
coefficient changes during the transition from a parallel to an antiparallel
magnetic configuration in a tunnel junction. In that respect, it is the analog
to the tunneling magnetoresistance. The Seebeck coefficients in parallel and
antiparallel configuration are in the order of the voltages known from the
charge-Seebeck effect. The size and sign of the effect can be controlled by the
composition of the electrodes' atomic layers adjacent to the barrier and the
temperature. Experimentally, we realized 8.8 % magneto-Seebeck effect, which
results from a voltage change of about -8.7 {\mu}V/K from the antiparallel to
the parallel direction close to the predicted value of -12.1 {\mu}V/K.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 table
Optical probing of spin dynamics of two-dimensional and bulk electrons in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction system
We present time-resolved Kerr rotation measurements of electron spin dynamics
in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction system that contains a high-mobility
two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Due to the complex layer structure of this
material the Kerr rotation signals contain information from electron spins in
three different layers: the 2DEG layer, a GaAs epilayer in the heterostructure,
and the underlying GaAs substrate. The 2DEG electrons can be observed at low
pump intensities, using that they have a less negative g-factor than electrons
in bulk GaAs regions. At high pump intensities, the Kerr signals from the GaAs
epilayer and the substrate can be distinguished when using a barrier between
the two layers that blocks intermixing of the two electron populations. This
allows for stronger pumping of the epilayer, which results in a shift of the
effective g-factor. Thus, three populations can be distinguished using
differences in g-factor. We support this interpretation by studying how the
spin dynamics of each population has its unique dependence on temperature, and
how they correlate with time-resolved reflectance signals.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
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