Mesoscopics in Spintronics: Quantum Interference Effects in Spin-Polarized Electron Transport

We generalize a Landauer-type formula, using a real$\otimes$spin-space Green function technique, to treat spin-dependent transport in quantum-coherent conductors attached to two ferromagnetic contacts. The formalism is employed to study the properties of components of an exact zero-temperature conductance matrix ${\bf G}$, as well as their mesoscopic fluctuations, describing injection and detection of a spin-polarized current in a two-dimensional system where electrons exhibit an interplay between Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and phase-coherent propagation through a disordered medium. Strong Rashba coupling leads to a dramatic reduction of localization effects on the conductances and their fluctuations, whose features depend on the spin-polarization of injected electrons. In the limit of weak Rashba interaction antilocalization vanishes (i.e., the sum of the matrix elements of ${\bf G}$ is almost independent of the SO coupling), but the partial spin-resolved conductances can still be non-zero. Besides spin-resolved conductance fluctuations and antilocalization, unusual quantum interference effects are revealed in this system leading to a negative difference between the partial conductances for a parallel and an antiparallel orientation of the contact magnetization, in a range of disorder strengths and for a particular spin-polarization of incoming electron with respect to the direction of Rashba electric field.Comment: 12 pages, 13 embedded EPS figures, substantially enlarged version with some new results and calculational detail

Negative differential resistance in graphene-nanoribbon/carbon-nanotube crossbars: A first-principles multiterminal quantum transport study

We simulate quantum transport between a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) and a single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) where electrons traverse vacuum gap between them. The GNR covers CNT over a nanoscale region while their relative rotation is 90 degrees, thereby forming a four-terminal crossbar where the bias voltage is applied between CNT and GNR terminals. The CNT and GNR are chosen as either semiconducting (s) or metallic (m) based on whether their two-terminal conductance exhibits a gap as a function of the Fermi energy or not, respectively. We find nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) characteristics in all three investigated devices---mGNR-sCNT, sGNR-sCNT and mGNR-mCNT crossbars---which are asymmetric with respect to changing the bias voltage from positive to negative. Furthermore, the I-V characteristics of mGNR-sCNT crossbar exhibits negative differential resistance (NDR) with low onset voltage $V_\mathrm{NDR} \simeq 0.25$ V and peak-to-valley current ratio $\simeq 2.0$. The overlap region of the crossbars contains only $\simeq 460$ carbon and hydrogen atoms which paves the way for nanoelectronic devices ultrascaled well below the smallest horizontal length scale envisioned by the international technology roadmap for semiconductors. Our analysis is based on the nonequilibrium Green function formalism combined with density functional theory (NEGF-DFT), where we also provide an overview of recent extensions of NEGF-DFT framework (originally developed for two-terminal devices) to multiterminal devices.Comment: PDFLaTeX, 17 pages, 6 color figures; prepared for the special issue of the Journal of Computational Electronics on "Multiscale and Multiphysics Modeling of Nanostructures and Devices

How to construct the proper gauge-invariant density matrix in steady-state nonequilibrium: Applications to spin-transfer and spin-orbit torques

Experiments observing spin density and spin currents (responsible for, e.g., spin-transfer torque) in spintronic devices measure only the nonequilibrium contributions to these quantities, typically driven by injecting unpolarized charge current or by applying external time-dependent fields. On the other hand, theoretical approaches to calculate them operate with both the nonequilibrium (carried by electrons around the Fermi surface) and the equilibrium (carried by the Fermi sea electrons) contributions. Thus, an unambiguous procedure should remove the equilibrium contributions, thereby rendering the nonequilibrium ones which are measurable and satisfy the gauge-invariant condition according to which expectation values of physical quantities should not change when electric potential everywhere is shifted by a constant amount. Using the framework of nonequilibrium Green functions, we delineate such procedure which yields the proper gauge-invariant nonequilibrium density matrix in the linear-response and elastic transport regime for current-carrying steady state of an open quantum system connected to two macroscopic reservoirs. Its usage is illustrated by computing: (i) conventional spin-transfer torque (STT) in asymmetric F/I/F magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs); (ii) unconventional STT in asymmetric N/I/F semi-MTJs with the strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) at the I/F interface and injected current perpendicular to that plane; and (iii) current-driven spin density within a clean ferromagnetic Rashba spin-split two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) which generates SO torque in laterally patterned N/F/I heterostructures when such 2DEG is located at the N/F interface and injected charge current flows parallel to the plane.Comment: 18 pages, 5 color EPS figures; mini-review prepared for SPIN (World Scientific); typos corrected and references added in v

Spin-memory loss due to spin-orbit coupling at ferromagnet/heavy-metal interfaces: Ab initio spin-density matrix approach

Spin-memory loss (SML) of electrons traversing ferromagnetic-metal/heavy-metal (FM/HM), FM/normal-metal (FM/NM) and HM/NM interfaces is a fundamental phenomenon that must be invoked to explain consistently large number of spintronic experiments. However, its strength extracted by fitting experimental data to phenomenological semiclassical theory, which replaces each interface by a fictitious bulk diffusive layer, is poorly understood from a microscopic quantum framework and/or materials properties. Here we describe an ensemble of flowing spin quantum states using spin-density matrix, so that SML is measured like any decoherence process by the decay of its off-diagonal elements or, equivalently, by the reduction of the magnitude of polarization vector. By combining this framework with density functional theory (DFT), we examine how all three components of the polarization vector change at Co/Ta, Co/Pt, Co/Cu, Pt/Cu and Pt/Au interfaces embedded within Cu/FM/HM/Cu vertical heterostructures. In addition, we use ab initio Green's functions to compute spectral functions and spin textures over FM, HM and NM monolayers around these interfaces which quantify interfacial spin-orbit coupling and explain the microscopic origin of SML in long-standing puzzles, such as why it is nonzero at Co/Cu interface; why it is very large at Pt/Cu interface; and why it occurs even in the absence of disorder, intermixing and magnons at the interface.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, PDFLaTeX; published versio

Controlling Decoherence of Transported Quantum Spin Information in Semiconductor Spintronics

We investigate quantum coherence of electron spin transported through a semiconductor spintronic device, where spins are envisaged to be controlled by electrical means via spin-orbit interactions. To quantify the degree of spin coherence, which can be diminished by an intrinsic mechanism where spin and orbital degrees of freedom become entangled in the course of transport involving spin-orbit interaction and scattering, we study the decay of the off-diagonal elements of the spin density matrix extracted directly from the Landauer transmission matrix of quantum transport. This technique is applied to understand how to preserve quantum interference effects of fragile superpositions of spin states in ballistic and non-ballistic multichannel semiconductor spintronic devices.Comment: 7 pages, 3 color EPS figures, prepared for Proceedings of International Symposium on Mesoscopic Superconductivity and Spintronics 2004 (Atsugi, Japan, March 1-4, 2004

Time-retarded damping and magnetic inertia in the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation self-consistently coupled to electronic time-dependent nonequilibrium Green functions

The conventional Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation is a widely used tool to describe dynamics of local magnetic moments, viewed as classical vectors of fixed length, with their change assumed to take place simultaneously with the cause. Here we demonstrate that recently developed [M. D. Petrovi\'{c} {\em et al.}, {\tt arXiv:1802.05682}] self-consistent coupling of the LLG equation to time-dependent quantum-mechanical description of electrons microscopically generates time-retarded damping in the LLG equation described by a memory kernel which is also spatially dependent. For sufficiently slow dynamics of local magnetic moments, the memory kernel can be expanded to extract the Gilbert damping (proportional to first time derivative of magnetization) and magnetic inertia (proportional to second time derivative of magnetization) terms whose parameters, however, are time-dependent in contrast to time-independent parameters used in the conventional LLG equation. We use examples of single or multiple magnetic moments precessing in an external magnetic field, as well as field-driven motion of a magnetic domain wall (DW), to quantify the difference in their time evolution computed from conventional LLG equation vs. TDNEGF+LLG quantum-classical hybrid approach. The faster DW motion predicted by TDNEGF+LLG approach reveals that important quantum effects, stemming from finite amount of time which it takes for conduction electron spin to react to the motion of classical local magnetic moments, are missing from conventional classical micromagnetics simulations. We also demonstrate large discrepancy between TDNEGF+LLG-computed numerically exact and, therefore, nonperturbative result for charge current pumped by a moving DW and the same quantity computed by perturbative spin motive force formula combined with the conventional LLG equation.Comment: 12 pages; PDFLaTe

Edge currents and nanopore arrays in zigzag and chiral graphene nanoribbons as a route toward high-ZTZT thermoelectrics

We analyze electronic and phononic quantum transport through zigzag or chiral graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) perforated with an array of nanopores. Since local charge current profiles in these GNRs are peaked around their edges, drilling nanopores in their interior does not affect such edge charge currents while drastically reducing heat current carried by phonons in sufficiently long wires. The combination of these two effects can yield highly efficient thermoelectric devices with maximum $ZT \simeq 11$ at liquid nitrogen temperature and $ZT \simeq 4$ at room temperature achieved in $\sim 1$ $\mu$m long zigzag GNRs with nanopores of variable diameter and spacing between them. Our analysis is based on the $\pi$-orbital tight-binding Hamiltonian with up to third nearest-neighbor hopping for electronic subsystem, the empirical fourth-nearest-neighbor model for phononic subsystem, and nonequilibrium Green function formalism to study quantum transport in both of these models.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, PDFLaTe

Reduction of Josephson critical current in short ballistic SNS weak links

We present fully self-consistent calculations of the thermodynamic properties of three-dimensional clean SNS Josephson junctions, where S is an s-wave short-coherence-length superconductor and N is a clean normal metal. The junction is modeled on an infinite cubic lattice such that the transverse width of the S is the same as that of the N, and its thickness is tuned from the short to long limit. Both the reduced order parameter near the SN boundary and the short coherence length depress the critical Josephson current $I_c$, even in short junctions. This is contrasted with recent measurements on SNS junctions finding much smaller $I_cR_N$ products than expected from the standard (non-self consistent and quasiclassical) predictions. We also find unusual current-phase relations, a ``phase anti-dipole'' spatial distribution of the self-consistently determined contribution to the macroscopic phase, and an ``unexpected'' minigap in the local density of states within the N region.Comment: 5 pages, 4 embedded EPS figure

Equilibrium Properties of Double-Screened-Dipole-Barrier SINIS Josephson Junctions

We report on a self-consistent microscopic study of the DC Josephson effect in $SINIS$ junctions where screened dipole layers at the $SN$ interfaces generate a double-barrier multilayered $SIN$ structure. Our approach starts from a microscopic Hamiltonian defined on a simple cubic lattice, with an attractive Hubbard term accounting for the short coherence length superconducting order in the semi-infinite leads, and a spatially extended charge distribution (screened dipole layer) induced by the difference in Fermi energies of the superconductor $S$ and the clean normal metal interlayer $N$. By employing the temperature Green function technique, in a continued fraction representation, the influence of such spatially inhomogeneous barriers on the proximity effect, current-phase relation, critical supercurrent and normal state junction resistance, is investigated for different normal interlayer thicknesses and barrier heights. These results are of relevance for high-$T_c$ grain boundary junctions, and also reveal one of the mechanisms that can lead to low critical currents of apparently ballistic $SNS$ junctions while increasing its normal state resistance in a much weaker fashion. When the $N$ region is a doped semiconductor, we find a substantial change in the dipole layer (generated by a small Fermi level mismatch) upon crossing the superconducting critical temperature, which is a new signature of proximity effect and might be related to recent Raman studies in Nb/InAs bilayers.Comment: 15 pages, 15 EPS embedded figure

Suppression of the "quasiclassical" proximity gap in correlated-metal--superconductor structures

We study the energy and spatial dependence of the local density of states in a superconductor--correlated-metal--superconductor Josephson junction, where the correlated metal is a non-Fermi liquid (described by the Falicov-Kimball model). Many-body correlations are treated with dynamical mean-field theory, extended to inhomogeneous systems. While quasiclassical theories predict a minigap in the spectrum of a disordered Fermi liquid which is proximity-coupled within a mesoscopic junction, we find that increasing electron correlations destroy any minigap that might be opened in the absence of many-body correlations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 embedded EPS figures; some issues clarified with new result presented in the inset of Fig.